The Union Township Fire Department has received Accredited Agency Status with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) for meeting the criteria established through the CFAI’s voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program. UTFD is one of 200 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence Inc. (CPSE).

CFAI is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency service 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. The CFAI process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess its service delivery and performance internally, after which the agency works with a team of peers from other agencies to evaluate its completed self-assessment.

Chief Stanley G. Deimling said the department’s achievement of Accredited Agency status demonstrates the commitment of the UTFD to provide the highest quality of service to our community.

“We have also been able to use the Commission on Fire Accreditation International’s process as a proactive mechanism to plan for the future of our department and locate areas where we can improve on the quality of the services we provide,” Deimling said.

The process of complying with strict and comprehensive standards that number in the hundreds, as well as maintaining documentation for each indicator, is ongoing. The department accreditation manager must file annual compliance reports to CFAI, indicating continual improvement and progress toward meeting the site-visit recommendations. Every five years, the department must undergo the accreditation process anew.

This is the second time the UTFD has been reaccredited since its original accreditation in 2004.

The Union Township Fire Department joins the Police Department, Communications Center and Service Department (including Mt. Moriah Cemetery and parks) in accreditation, making Union Township the only township in the United States to have all its safety and service departments accredited.