CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN AIR FORCE STATION, Colo. -- The Cheyenne Mountain Fire & Emergency Services in Colorado Springs, Colorado has received Accredited Agency status for the 2nd time, 2013 and 2018, with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International for exceeding the criteria established through the CFAI’s voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program. The CMFES is one of 250 agencies across the country and the Department of Defense to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc.
“I’m extremely proud of our firefighters,“ said Dino Bonaldo II, CMAFS 721st Civil Engineer Squadron Director. “The reaccreditation validates our exceptional professionalism, reliability and commitment to excellence.”
CMFES has labored for the last 10 years in developing process improvements that provided our customers with quality emergency services.
“Thousands of hours were dedicated to analyzing operational performance and ensuring compliance with industry standards,” said CMFES Deputy Fire Chief David K. Arcilla and accreditation manager.
The team perfected innovative improvements to critical programs, meticulously managed response data for accuracy and standard alignment, and conducted continuous self-assessments for each facet of the department.
The 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.
Arcilla stated that the agency’s achievement of reaccredited agency status “demonstrates the commitment of the agency to provide the highest quality of service to our community.”
Arcilla also said, “We have also 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.”
A team of CFAI Assessors who arrived on CMAFS, June 4, 2018, conducted various interviews over three days, and validated hundreds of critical core criterion written to describe how CMFES met the Fire Emergency Services Self-Assessment Manual objectives. The team assessment culminated in three additional recommendations and a host of programmatic accolades.
The team leader, also a member of the Technical Working Group for the 9th Edition FESSAM, retired Fire Chief Jerry Nulliner said, “I observed a strong commitment by the department to the accreditation process.”
CMFES traveled to Dallas to attend CFAI Hearing on Aug. 10, 2018, where a unanimous decision by a Board of 11 Commissioners to grant Cheyenne Mountain AFS Fire & Emergency Services reaccreditation status for the next five years, to 2023!