RAF Mildenhall Fire Department earns international accreditation status

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  The RAF Mildenhall Fire Department officially achieved worldwide accreditation status March 14, 2019, making it the first U.S. Air Force fire department in the United Kingdom, second in U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, and only the third within the European Command to gain the accomplishment.

Awarded by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, gaining the official accreditation provides credibility in the fire and emergency services profession, both military and civilian. According to the Center for Public Safety Excellence, accreditation benefits include encouraging continuous quality improvement, identifying strengths and weaknesses, national recognition, and creating a method for developing or revamping strategic plans.

Becoming accredited can take years, but under the guidance of Chief Master Sgt. William Taylor, 100th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department fire chief, his team worked around the clock to write up and accomplish all the self-assessment procedures to become a bench mark station.

“Accreditation is not mandatory, but if you truly believe that your fire organization is as good as you say it is, this validates it,” said Master Sgt. Stephen Sanabria, 100th CES Fire Department assistant chief of operations. “It’s a voluntary and extremely long process you have to go through. We were evaluated on 257 key performance indicators.”

Taylor, Sanabria and Senior Master Sgt. Lance Berentson went to the Center for Public Safety and Excellence conference, at Orange Grove, Calif., and went in front of the commission March 14.

To ensure fire departments meet all the criteria, thorough training is critical, and Sanabria underwent two courses to provide him and the department the knowledge and means to be successful in their application for accreditation.

Documentation was then thoroughly evaluated before Sanabria said he received a call to say the review had found their records to be top notch, so RAF Mildenhall had been recommended for a peer site visit mid-January 2019. The visit was from an outside peer team, made up of three civilian fire chiefs and one Department of Defense assessor.

“As a result of the site visit, the team recommended us for accredited status,” the assistant chief of operations remarked. “With their final report they gave us recommended improvement areas – for a first-time agency we only had six RIAs; they told us that was unheard of! Most facilities have around 10 to 20, and that spoke volumes of the effort we put into the process.”

At the conference in California, the RAF Mildenhall team answered questions on some of the recommended improvement areas found. They explained the procedures that had already been put in place to correct the deficiencies, and how they would continue to build on their exemplary program.

Taylor said they then received their accredited status and were presented the award, which is now on display at the fire station here.

“While the accreditation process is not mandated by Department of Defense Instructions, it does state that DOD fire departments should work towards being accredited through CPSE,” Taylor explained.

“It’s a commitment to excellence and a commitment to the community,” the fire chief continued. “It means we’re providing the highest level of service for them, and that we’re credible and valid. It’s 100 percent voluntary to become accredited; it’s a lot of work and has taken thousands of dedicated man hours to ensure daily compliance.”

Taylor said each of the fire chiefs on the peer assessment team had between 25 and 40 years’ experience in the fire service, and they were charged with ensuring what the 100th CES Fire Department put on paper was what they were actually doing.

“They told me in all honesty that they were apprehensive when coming in, because our documents looked so good, they were concerned as it seemed too good to be true. But after they spent a week with us, really looking deep into the categories they were marking us on, their exact words were, ‘The ink matches the action,’” he said proudly. “The team lead chief stated in the outbrief that this was the standard by which other DOD fire departments should model their program – I was very happy with that.

“This has been a huge accomplishment for the department, because I know that through this process, the foundation has been laid to be able to be progressive and work towards excellence every day. This fire department has been phenomenal, and definitely measured up throughout this entire process. But it’s not just about the plaque and the stickers we get to put on the trucks – being an accredited agency legitimizes the program that we have and reassures our community that if they call us on the worst day, we’re ready to act,” the fire chief said.