North Lake Times

The Clermont Fire Department was reaccredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) after meeting the meticulous criteria established through the CFAI’s voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program. 

“This is a proud moment for the men and women of the Clermont Fire Department and one that would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of those very same men and women,” Fire Chief David Ezell said. “Our team worked long and hard on this very demanding process and I am extremely proud of our results.”

City and Fire Department leadership was interviewed on Tuesday by a panel of accreditation experts as the last step in the lengthy and difficult process.  Fire leadership estimated they spent at least 15,000 hours preparing the more than 1,000 documents required and then addressing issues discovered during the self-assessment. 

“This achievement demonstrates the commitment our fire department has to continue to provide the very best and highest level of service to our community,” City Manager Brian Bulthuis said. “I could not be prouder of our people or happier for Clermont.”

The Clermont Fire 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. The department was first accredited in 2018 and has maintained that achievement since.  

CFAI is dedicated to assisting fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation to provide continuous quality improvement and the enhancement of services delivered to their communities. The process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess its service delivery and performance internally.  That self-assessment is then evaluated by a team of the agency’s peers who then offer suggestions for improvement.

“We have been able to use the CFAI’s process to proactively identify areas where we can do better and then develop and implement plans to make those improvements,” Chief Ezell said. “These processes are also very helpful in planning for the future of our department.” 

Original source can be found here.