ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Fire Department’s accreditation was revoked afterit failed to provide the accreditation agency the documents and missed multiple meetings over the last year.
The chief tried to get 60 more days to do it, but the agency said no.
Now the fire department will have to try all over again.
Until now, the Orlando Fire Department has touted its accreditation from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. The city put it right on its website, proud of the work they have done to get it.
The accreditation is basically an audit on how the department is doing. It doesn’t affect the day-to-day operations, but the city has kept it up for 12 years until it was revoked last week.
Documents show the commission’s program manager had been trying for a year to get the department’s documents and do an inspection. But calls and meetings were ignored, so the accreditation was terminated.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer responded by saying, “The accreditation is nice to have. We tout that. It’s an objective observation on where you stand, but it won’t affect day-to-day service in any way.“
The fire department asked for a 60-day extension, but it was denied. That means it will have start the process over to try and get reaccredited.
The department did not answer WFTV’s questions about why or how this happened, but sent a statement saying, “The Orlando Fire Department remains steadfast in its pursuit of reaccreditation from the Center of Public Safety Excellence. Although accreditation is completely voluntary and does not impact our current level of service to our community, we will continue to utilize external validation models to enhance departmental effectiveness for the benefit of residents, visitors, and businesses of the city of Orlando. We anticipate achieving reaccreditation in the near future. In the meantime, the public can continue to expect world-class service from our Class 1 ISO-rated fire department.”
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