Photo By 94th Airlift Wing | From left to right, Nick Christensen, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron fire emergency...... read more read more
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The Travis Fire Emergency Services is one of 220 agencies to receive accreditation worldwide, which includes being the first in Solano County and the 16th across the state of California.
“TFES was unanimously awarded accredited status by the panel of commissioners for the Commission of Fire Accreditation International at the semi-annual hearing in Orlando, Florida, this past March,” said Nicholas Christensen, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron fire emergency services captain. “This means that all of the commissioners agreed that TFES has met the 253 performance indicator requirements to become an internationally accredited fire service agency.”
To compete for the award, the Commission of Fire Accreditation International sent a peer assessment team to Travis in January, which reviewed the department’s processes in their performance areas to receive a recommendation.
“In order to be eligible to become accredited, an agency must be legally established and recognized as a professional fire department,” Christensen said. “Here at Travis, we are established as a Federal Fire Agency under DODI 6055.06 Fire and Emergency Services Program and AFI 32-2001 Fire Emergency Services Program.”
Some of the major areas evaluated as part of the 253 performance requirements included fire suppression, aviation fire suppression, hazardous materials, emergency medical services, technical rescue, fire prevention and public education, as well as adequate standard operating guides, effective program management of additional duties and a comprehensive career training program. In addition to the Air Force and Department of Defense Instructions, TFES was also required to adhere to National Fire Protection Association requirements.
“Being an accredited agency shows we have demonstrated that we meet the international standard of what is considered the industries best practices as a professional fire service agency,” Christensen said. “It is a major accomplishment to achieve and being the first in Solano County has been an additional achievement that is now sparking interest in other local fire departments.”
The accomplishment took three years to achieve. In that time, TFES had to write an explanation as to how they met each of the 253 performance objectives, develop a five year strategic plan, develop an agency standards of cover and perform a comprehensive risk assessment of all hazards on the installation to include a risk assessment of each facility on the installation.
“In addition, we had to track and analyze the past three years of response data for all emergencies to include structural, aircraft, medical, hazmat and technical rescue,” Christensen said. “This truly was a team effort that could not have been done by any one person.”
| Date Taken: | 06.02.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.03.2016 16:49 |
| Story ID: | 199913 |
| Location: | TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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