The Kingsport Fire Department (KFD) received its fourth consecutive designation as an Accredited Agency. Chief Craig Dye and Assistant Chief Scott Boyd presented the Kingsport Fire Department’s submission and received the results of the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) review at Fire Rescue International in San Antonio, TX. The hearing culminated a year long process by the Kingsport Fire Department’s Accreditation Team.
The CFAI confers Accredited Agency status for a period of five years, during which an agency must submit four Annual Compliance Reports to demonstrate their continued compliance with core performance indicators and report on progress in executing their plans for improvement. The Commission determines if the reports are acceptable and the agency may retain its accredited status. At the end of the fifth year, an Accredited Agency must seek reaccreditation and successfully complete the peer review process to remain accredited.
Early in 2016, Kingsport Fire Department’s (KFD) Accreditation Committee and members of the Board of Mayor and Alderman met with a Fire Service Peer Assessment Team for review and recommendations toward the KFD’s Accreditation with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI).
The Peer Assessment Team consisted of Chief Mike Stallings, Rock Mount (NC) Fire Department (retired), Chief Matt Knott, Rockford (IL) Fire Department, Chief Andrew Ansley, Monroe (NC) Fire Department and Chief Josh Smith, Statesville (NC) Fire Department.
In 2001, Kingsport Fire Department was one of the first 40 Fire Departments in the world to obtain the Commission on Fire Accreditation International designation. In 2006 and 2011 the KFD again awarded the designation. Currently the Kingsport Fire Department is one of only four fire departments in the state of Tennessee and was one of the first 40 in the world recognized as an Accredited Agency through the Center for Public Safety Excellence Commission’s Fire Accreditation International. Brentwood (TN) Fire & Rescue, City of Maryville (TN) Fire Department, and the City of Alcoa Fire Department are the only other agencies in Tennessee to achieve this designation.
Special thanks to the Kingsport Fire Department’s (KFD) Accreditation Committee Members for their hard work:
Chief Craig Dye
Assistant Chief Scott Boyd
Deputy Chief David Chase
Deputy Chief Darrell Hayes
Deputy Chief Jim Everhart
Fire Marshal Robert Sluss
Senior Captain Joel Jones
Captain Max Bear
Captain Jessie Bishop
Captain Chris Lowe
Captain David Mitchell
Captain Ben Wexler
Assistant Fire Marshal Chris Vandagriff
Public Education Officer Barry Brickey
Executive Secretary Alison Shaffer
Center for Public Safety Excellence Mission:
The mission of the Center for Public Safety Excellence is “To lead the fire and emergency service to excellence through the continuous quality improvement process of accreditation, credentialing, and education.”
Accreditation is a comprehensive self-assessment and evaluation model that enables organizations to examine past, current, and future service levels and internal performance and compare them to industry best practices. This process leads to improved service delivery.
CPSE’s Accreditation Program, administered by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) allows fire and emergency service agencies to compare their performance to industry best practices in order to:
- Determine community risk and safety needs and develop community-specific Standards of Cover.
- Evaluate the performance of the department.
- Establish a method for achieving continuous organizational improvement.
Local government executives face increasing pressure to “do more with less” and justify their expenditures by demonstrating a direct link to improved or expanded services. Particularly for emergency services, local officials need criteria to assess professional performance and efficiency. The CFAI accreditation process provides a well-defined, internationally-recognized benchmark system to measure the quality of fire and emergency services.
