By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Fire Chief from the Calgary, Alberta Fire Department in Canada presented the Hutchinson Fire Department with their plaque for international accreditation virtually at Tuesday's City Council meeting. Hutchinson Fire Chief Steven Beer was justifiably proud of his team at the end of a four year process.
"It's a great honor to lead this team," said Beer. "I'll put it bluntly, you guys have got one hell of a fire department in this town."
Chief Steve Dongworth noted that there are around 300 agencies in the world that are accredited.
"It's something that not a lot of agencies are willing to measure themselves against," Dongworth said. "It's a peer-based continuous improvement model where it's a lot of work. The work of preparing your documents, preparing your community risk assessment, which really takes an in depth look at the risks that are present in your community and developing your standards of cover document, which is how you respond to those risks."
Hutchinson is one of only around 100 agencies in the world that are both internationally accredited and ISO 1 agencies.