St. Charles Fire Department awarded international accreditation

The St. Charles Fire Department has retained Accredited Agency status with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) for once again meeting the criteria established through the CFAI's voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program.

The St. Charles Fire Department is one of only 250 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence Inc.

The department was first accredited in 2013.

CFAI is dedicated to assisting fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world achieve excellence through self-assessment and accreditation to continually improve and enhance services to their communities.

The CFAI process is voluntary, and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess its service delivery and performance internally. The agency then works with a team of peers from other agencies to evaluate its completed self-assessment.

"Our achievement of Accredited Agency status demonstrates that our department is not only comprised of dedicated professionals, but we are also truly a leader in our industry," said Fire Chief Joseph Schelstreet. "We have long realized here that it is not enough to just be a high-performance organization; it is necessary to document that performance, construct a plan for continuous improvement and be transparent with our results."

City Administrator Mark Koenen said, "Retaining International Accreditation is a significant accomplishment. Chief Schelstreet, his leadership team and all the members of the St. Charles Fire Department should be commended for continually looking to improve their vital service to the St. Charles community."