MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Although the name implies they only fight fires, a firefighter’s job goes beyond that. Whether it is a vehicle accident, a hazardous material spill, a water rescue, or of course, a fire, they are here to protect the public by responding to a variety of emergencies.
The must be prepared for any situation at any moment which demands continuous training and development.
Recently, the Fire and Emergency Services at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, was awarded international reaccreditation status by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International for their continuous commitment to quality improvement and enhancement of service delivery to the community.
“Accreditation enables organizations to examine past, current and future services levels and compare them to industry best practices,” said Matthew Amann, the deputy fire chief assigned to the 6th Civil Engineer Squadron. “It shows that our men and women are meeting the industry standards, which leads to more efficient and effective emergency services.”
Back in 2010, MacDill began the voluntary accreditation process, which then concluded in 2013 with the CFAI granting the Fire and Emergency Services Flight accreditation status.
“They came down with a magnifying glass and looked at everything from training programs to goals and objectives to external relationships,” Amann said. “They came back with recommendations that we took and moved forward with.”
Once accredited, the department is required to continually show they maintain readiness through annual self-assessments.
“We hold the accredited status for five years, but every year we have to submit an Annual Compliance Report to demonstrate continued compliance with core performance indicators and report progress in executing plans for improvement,” Amann explained. “At the four year mark, we start the process again to remain accredited for another five years.”
“We constantly conduct classes and refreshers on our first responder certifications,” said Staff Sgt. Jacob Holtgate, lead firefighter assigned to the 6th Civil Engineer Squadron. “We are consistently out on the fire department training grounds performing structural drills and going over procedures for search and rescue and other operations.”
After being awarded accreditation status back in 2013 and maintaining the status for five years, MacDill was reaccredited thanks in part to its relationship with the Tampa community.
“The city of Tampa has been a part of the accreditation process with us since 2010,” Amann said. “If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be able to meet some of the performance indicators like alarm processing, and response and travel time. I’ve never been in a community that had this type of partnership with a base.”
Along with the partnership with the city of Tampa, the dedication of each Airman involved is what allowed MacDill to become one of only 24 agencies in the Air Force, and 247 worldwide, to receive this prestigious status.
“This achievement demonstrates the commitment of every Airman to provide the highest quality of service to our community,” Amann said. “From the chiefs all the way down to the brand new Airmen, it takes every person involved to continually improve on the quality of services we provide.”