Cedar Park Fire Department Given International Accreditation

CEDAR PARK, TX — The Cedar Park Fire Department has been re-accredited with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International for meeting the criteria established through the group's voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program, officials announced.

In achieving the status, the Cedar Park Fire Department was the first fire department in Central Texas and one of only nine in the State of Texas so recognized. The local fire department is one of more than 270 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc., officials said.

Additionally, officials added, the Cedar Park Fire Department is one of only 84 (was 15 back in 2014) fire departments in the nation that are both ISO Class 1 and Accredited.

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 the enhancement of service delivery 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.

Fire Chief James Mallinger said that the agency’s achievement of Reaccreditation Status demonstrates the Cedar Park Fire Department’s ongoing commitment to provide the highest quality of service to the community.

“I am proud of the all work done by the members of the Cedar Park Fire Department which made reaccreditation possible," the chief said in a prepared statement. "Members led the strategic planning process and reviewed all fire department operations in order to improve the services provided to our community.”

Accreditation Team Leader Matthew Knott added: “During the May 2019 site visit, the team identified a strong and healthy agency that is focused on the Accreditation process and wholeheartedly uses it to guide its operations.”

Mallinger expounded on the accomplishment, saying the process involved creating a new departmental strategic plan, updating the department’s standards of cover, writing 252 objectives and plans for improvement covering all departmental operations, reapplication to CFAI and evaluation for getting re-accredited. In addition to the five-year reaccreditation process, the Cedar Park Fire Department must complete Annual Compliance Statements in order to maintain accredited status.

“Accreditation is not an event, but a process that has been woven in to all of the operations of the Cedar Park Fire Department," Mallinger said. "Accreditation is proof that the fire department is pursuing excellence for the community. The constant self-assessments allow the fire department to continuously improve and enhance services for the people of Cedar Park.”