Photo By Jack Adamyk | Ryan Tworek, deputy fire chief, Paul Purdy, fire chief, Col. Craig C. Clemans,...... read more read more
The Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow Fire Department trained for three days at MCLB beginning on January 7th on hazardous materials procedures. MCLBB FD members received detailed instructions on handling chlorine gas leaks in cylinders and on rail cars.
Fire and Emergency Services aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California, has received Accredited Agency status with Commission on Fire Accreditation International, Jan.
21.
“This is a process of agency self-assessment and Continuous Process Improvement,” said Paul Purdy, FES fire chief. “We were the first fire department in the Marine Corps to be accredited in 2010 and again in 2015. Then every five years we go through the entire process again along with an Annual Compliancy Report that goes in front of the Commission to be voted on in order to maintain accreditation status.”
The Department of Defense has many mechanisms to evaluate their fire programs. Speaking specifically to different DoD component’s FES divisions such as Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Defense Logistics Agency, each has its governing document that supports the overall governing DoD processes.
“For example, the Army Fire Regulation is the AR-420, the Marine Corps’ is Marine Corps Order 11000, and for the Air Force, it is AFI 32-2001 and so on,” Purdy explained. “The USAF utilizes the Commission on Fire Accreditation International model to build the fire department inspection criteria for their program. This inspection is called the Fire and Emergency Services Self-Assessment Program.”
The Marine Corps has utilized the CFAI model since 2010 whereby the Commanding General of Marine Corps Installations Command ordered it as a policy for all USMC fire departments.
“The USMC has taken it another step forward and has aligned each chapter of our MCO 11000.11 to mirror the CFAI Categories,” Purdy said. “Even before the USMC mandated following the Commission on Fire Accreditation International model, our organization recognized the worth of going through the accreditation process a number of years prior when Chief Thomas Thompson was the Fire Chief for MCLB Barstow. So when I became the Accreditation Manager at MCLB Barstow in 2007, we adopted the model and became accredited in August 2010.”
Although the Marine Corps Order does not make it mandatory to become accredited, in Purdy’s opinion, it helps to ensure the success of the organization. The agency is one of more than 250 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc.
“We opted to go through the entire process, and we continue to go through the process each year, and we have been successful,” he said. “Throughout the Marine Corps F&ES we have been accepting more risk than ever before, funding is being cut and our operational tempo and levels of service are not diminishing. We still have the same mission to accomplish and being able to do a 100 percent self-assessment of our department utilizing all CFAI categories, has paid dividends in showcasing to the Command and Base populace. This is what we do: We assess all areas of what we do, how we do it in detail, appraise how we do it, and have to include an improvement plan.”
CFAI is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency services agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation in order to provide continuous quality improvement and the enhancement of service delivery to their communities.
“Doing a 100 percent self-assessment, top to bottom, and really evaluating are programs is essential,” Purdy said. “With going through accreditation we can justify their requirements, align it to mission, and show the impact of how delivering those services can sustain our department periods of cut backs. We have obtained funds to refurbish multiple apparatus, acquired additional fire engines and ambulances, remodeled fire stations, and we are in the process of building a new fire station and upgrading the training facility. We have also received funds for a live fire training, and put in place a multi-level service contract to maintain, test and certify tools and equipment, all while not taking a cut in essential F&ES staffing.”
As fire department managers we have the responsibility for assessing what the department is doing as a whole and how well we are doing it. In doing so, it allows us to develop plans to bridge gaps in performance and programs.
“As DoD Fire Officers we are certified at the Officer 3 and 4 levels,” he said. “Those competencies that we are certified at give us the know-how to author a strategic plan, standard of cover, and risk assessment and give us a great foundation as executive level leaders to manage a department and its personnel. We have embraced the CFAI accreditation process because in my opinion, there is nothing that is more in-depth and that delivers holistically to a fire department and its community other than this process.”
| Date Taken: | 01.28.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 01.29.2021 13:29 |
| Story ID: | 387934 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 91 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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