The Village of Fox Crossing 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. The Village of Fox Crossing Fire Department is one of approximately 234 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc. (CPSE).

The Village of Fox Crossing was first accredited in 2000. Every five (5) years after the initial accreditation, the department must complete a reaccreditation process. The department was reaccredited previously in 2006 and 2011.

CFAI is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation. The accreditation process ensures continuous quality improvement and enhancement of service delivery to the service agencies’ communities. The CFAI process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model, which they can utilize to assess their service delivery and performance internally. They then work with a team of peers from other agencies to evaluate their completed self-assessment.

Fire Chief Keith Kiesow stated that the Fire Department’s achievement of Accredited Agency status “demonstrates the commitment of the agency to provide the highest quality of service to our community”. Chief Kiesow also said, “We have also been able to use the Commission on Fire Accreditation International’s process as a proactive mechanism to plan for the future and locate areas where we can improve the quality of the services we provide”. The peer assessment team, which completed the on-site evaluation process, offered the department several recommendations for improvement. These recommendations must be addressed prior to the next reaccreditation process in 2021.

Accreditation Manager Captain Mark Hesselman played a key role in the completion of the self-accreditation process with the assistance of other Fire Department and Village staff.