The Brentwood Fire & Rescue Department has received Accredited Agency status with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) for meeting the criteria established through the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program.
The Fire & Rescue Department is one of 200 agencies worldwide, and only 5 in Tennessee, to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status. The others in Tennessee are Kingsport, Alcoa, Maryville, and Nashville. The department began laying the groundwork for the accreditation process in early 2010.
The accreditation term is for a period of five years during which the fire and rescue department will be required to file annual compliance reports. The agency must then re-apply and be re-assessed for Accredited Agency status at the end of the five-year term.
CFAI is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation in order to provide continuous quality improvement and enhancement of service deliveries to their communities. 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 other agencies to evaluate their completed self-assessment.
On achieving accredited status, Fire Chief Brian Goss stated: “This demonstrates the commitment of the department to provide the highest quality of service to our community. 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 organization and identify areas where we can improve on the quality of the services we provide. While nearly every member of the department has their fingerprints on some part of this process, I would particularly like to thank Accreditation Managers Lt. Derek Hyde and Captain Brian Collins for their dedication and determination in helping make this a reality”.
