Firefighting service celebrates silver anniversary of certification
Fire captains Gerry O’neill and Craig Cox are part of a historic group of Newfoundland firefighters
It has been 25 years since firefighters in this province received an international designation.
To celebrate, the province and fire services felt it appropriate to commemorate Newfoundland as being the first accredited organization throughout North America of the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC).
Newfoundland was granted accreditation after its site visit report was reviewed, following a Jan. 13, 1992 meeting in Nashville, Tenn.
A ceremony was held at the West End Fire Station on Blackmarsh Road Wednesday to honour two of the 19 firefighters who were part of the original certification testing.
Fire Capt. Gerry O’neill and his colleague, Fire Capt. Craig Cox, were honoured by the fire commissioners office and the Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment “in recognition and appreciation of 25 years of International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) certification in the province of Newfoundland 1992-2017.”
“We assembled a group of firefighters for certification testing in 1991. A team came in from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., where IFASC is located,” Fire Commissioner Derek Simmons said Wednesday.
“After five days of testing, using the standards of that time, Newfoundland was the
first organization in North America accredited by IFASC. In fact, 12 of the 19 firefighters that were tested at that time are still in the fire service today,” he added.
O’neill and Cox were part of that group of original firefighters who were presented with certificates and coins by Simmons, marking their commitment to fire services in the province.
The goal of the IFASC is to increase the level of professionalism of the fire service through the accreditation of those entities that work with assemblies within the IFASC Congress for the accreditation of public fire service certification programs and/or fire-related postsecondary educational programs. Following these guidelines under the accreditation program, IFASC administers a
high-quality, internationally recognized, standards-based accrediting program in order to enhance and increase professionalism within fire and emergency services.
Newfoundland firefighters, like all other IFASC members, are reviewed every five years to ensure consistency in the administration of a high-quality fire service.
“That means if a firefighter
comes here from Ontario, British Columbia or other locations, they have followed a certification program that makes firefighting consistent,” Simmons said.
“By gaining this accreditation, it is a third-party validation of what we do and are recognized throughout the world for it.”