Marion Fire Department is Awarded International Accredited Status

The Marion Fire Department in Marion, Iowa, is pleased to share that it has received Accredited Agency status with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) for meeting the criteria established through the CFAI's voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program.

CFAI is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation to provide continuous quality improvement and enhance service delivery for their communities.

Marion Mayor Nick AbouAssaly, City Manager Ryan Waller and Fire Chief Tom Fagan were among the City representatives in attendance for the accreditation hearing in Chicago on Aug. 19.

"This achievement is an endorsement of our City's commitment to always reach higher and provide the best quality of service to our community," said Marion Mayor Nick AbouAssaly. "I applaud the agency for embracing this process and leading the way to excellence."

The CFAI process 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 verify and validate their completed self-assessment.

In early June, the Marion Fire Department hosted accreditation assessors from fire agencies across the country, including Colorado, California and New Mexico, who reviewed and validated the department's performance against more than 250 performance indicators. The team unanimously recommended that the department be considered for accredited status by CFAI.

"I am so proud of our team for implementing this quality practice model," said Fire Chief Tom Fagan. "This milestone reflects our commitment to excellence, validates our commitment to continuous improvement and, above all, serving our community. It is a significant achievement in the history of the City of Marion, but our work is far from over; we're just getting started."

The department is one of more than 300 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc. (CPSE) and one of eight in Iowa.