After signing an agreement with the Insurance Services Office last year, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International began taking a closer look at some of its data on accredited agencies and their ISO ratings.

“What we found was fascinating,” said CFAI Chairman Randy R. Bruegman in the organization's fall newsletter. “Of the 96 accredited agencies, 81 have a public protection classification grading using the ISO's Fire Suppression Rating Scale. The ISO ranks departments on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 1 indicating the best possible public protection. While only 0.1% of the ISO-rated community is at a Class 1 level, nearly 9% of CFAI accredited agencies can boast this same class.”

Coincidence? More than 90% of CFAI accredited agencies are a Class 4 or better, and the majority of accredited agencies have maintained or improved their ISO rating, Bruegman said.

Interesting — but not at all surprising. CFAI is a nonprofit organization that promotes continuous quality improvement within the emergency services by granting voluntary accreditations. As Bruegman said, only 96 agencies around the world have completed its rigorous accreditation process, which involves intensive self-evaluation, developing a comprehensive strategic plan and standards of cover, conducting a detailed risk analysis of the community, passing an exhaustive peer-review, and on-site analysis.

Based on this new information, the CFAI and the ISO have begun beta-testing three concurrent assessment surveys covering fire alarm centers, water supply and the fire-suppression component of ISO's FSRS schedule. Completion of these surveys will count as partial fulfillment of several corresponding performance indicators found in the accreditation self-assessment model.

For more information on the CFAI/ISO project, contact CFAI at 866-866-CFAI or visit www.cfainet.org.