FORT MCCOY, Wis. -- The Fort McCoy Fire Department received international fire accreditation during an August conference in Colorado.
Adam Ballard, Fort McCoy Fire Department accreditation manager, said the department's accreditation ended an approximately two-and-one-half year process. The installation became the fourth Army fire department to obtain the honor, with the others being Rock Island, Ill., Fort Lee, Va., and Fort Drum, N.Y.
Members of the Fort McCoy delegation were on hand when the Commission on Fire Accreditation, International (CFAI) convened in Denver in early August.
Ballard said each organization's Fire/Emergency Medical Services representatives received direct and challenging questions from CFAI Commissioners before a vote was taken on accreditation.
"This process embodies a pursuit of excellence within the fire industry; measures each and every aspect of your organization and benchmarks your findings towards continuous quality improvement. We are seeing more and more organizations who meet these industry challenges and institutionalize the core values of accreditation into how their agencies are managed, and for that the commission remains proud to refer to them as internationally accredited fire departments," said Chief Allan Cain (Cary, N.C.), CFAI Chairman.
After 12 hours of deliberations, 13 agencies received their Accredited Agency Status, three of which are Department of Defense fire agencies.
Thirteen received reaccredited Agency Status, while two received Deferral Status.
Ballard said the Fort McCoy Fire Department now will have to submit annual compliance reports and go through the reaccreditation process in five years.
"The accreditation process is all about devoting the department to continuous improvement," Ballard said. "Going through the process -- and now being accredited -- allows us to offer better emergency services to the Fort McCoy community and our mutual aid partners."
(The Center for Public Safety Excellence and the Commission on Fire Accreditation, International also provided information for this article.)
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