IAS Presents to Southern California Fire Prevention Officers

Preet Bassi, IAS Quality Manager, explains the process of becoming an accredited IAS Fire Prevention and Life Safety Department. International Accreditation Service's Preet Bassi, Quality Manager, and Greg West, Marketing Manager, presented on the IAS Fire Prevention and Life Safety Department Accreditation Program to the Southern California Fire Prevention Officers Association at its January 11 meeting in Beverly Hills, California. The California Fire Prevention Officers Association is part of the California Fire Chiefs Association and a chapter of the ICC. The program was developed jointly by IAS and the Center for Public Safety Excellence at the request of several fire service organizations and was officially launched in 2011. The accreditation program formally recognizes governmental fire prevention and life safety departments that have demonstrated technical and administrative competence and an effective and equitable system of fire prevention and code enforcement. IAS uses accreditation criteria (AC 426) as the basis for assessing departments against performance indicators in 10 primary categories, including governance and administration, risk assessment, goals and objectives, finance, program activity, physical resources, human resources, training and competency, essential resources, and external systems relations. In September 2011, the Florida Division of State Fire Marshal Bureau of Fire Prevention became the first department in the nation to achieve Fire Prevention and Life Safety Department Accreditation from the IAS. For more information, click here. Greg West, IAS Marketing Manager, discusses how the accreditation program was developed.