The gist
According to the city of San Marcos, this is the first time a public safety department in the city has earned a third-party accreditation. Fire departments must demonstrate evidence that they excel in all aspects of fire service operations.
After three years of gathering data on training, records keeping practices, fire operations, emergency medical service and other aspects of running a fire department, the Texas Fire Chiefs Association awarded the department with its Best Practices designation.
“While most communities believe their local fire department is an excellent fire department, elected officials, city managers, fire chiefs and citizens can verify this belief by their fire department attaining the best practices designation,” said Seguin Fire Chief Dale Skinner, who is also the south region director for the TFCA. “This is accomplished through an independent third-party review to determine if an organization functions at a defined level of excellence.”
According to the city, just 33 fire departments in the state have been recognized with the accreditation since 2012. San Marcos Fire Chief Les Stephens said the department will now have to demonstrate compliance every few years.
“This renews every three years. So we have to maintain this standard and this level of service, and we have to monitor this so that when we're back up in three years, we can renew,” Stephens said.
