BEVERLY HILLS—The Beverly Hills Fire Department received Accredited Agency status with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International for meeting the criteria established through the CFAI’s voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program.
According to a news release from the city of Beverly Hills, to complete the accreditation process, the BHFD Accreditation Team logged thousands of hours in preparing all requisite documents, to include addressing assessment-related inquires and peer team review action items. The team is comprised of both safety and civilian personnel.
The BHFD is one of the only 295 agencies in the country to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc. There are only 113 agencies that carry the distinction of being a Class-1 Fire Department and internationally-accredited worldwide. Only 12 percent of the US population is protected by accredited agencies and there are only 23 accredited agencies in the entire state of California.
The BHFD became the fourth accredited agency, out of 88 incorporated cities, which equates to 0.05 percent in Los Angelos County.
The CFAI process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess their service delivery and performance internally and then works with a team of peers from outside agencies to evaluate their completed self-assessment.
“With a combination of dynamic community involvement and close collaboration from City stakeholders, we have been able to use the Commission on Fire Accreditation International’s process as a proactive mechanism to plan for the future of this agency and locate areas where we can improve on the quality of the services we provided,” said BHFD Chief Greg Barton.
