The Orlando Fire Department is no longer accredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI), an entity that helps ensure fire agencies are on track to properly respond to community risk.
The commission sent Orlando Fire written notice on October 1 that the agency’s accreditation has been revoked, following a series of meetings this year that “have been non-productive,” according to the letter. Those meetings were held to try and help Orlando Fire develop a plan for updating three sets of key documents necessary for maintaining its accreditation status. That hasn’t happened, according to the letter.
In response, Orlando Fire is appealing the revocation, and requesting an extension to the agency’s deadline for updating the required documents, according to Public Information Manager Jesse Canales.
“While the appeal and extension request are under review, the accreditation status has no impact on the department’s day-to-day operations or the level of service provided. OFD continues to be ranked as an ISO Class 1 fire department which places it in the top 1% (.9%) of the nearly 30,000 fire departments in the United States,” Canales wrote via email.
ISO is the acronym for Insurance Services Office, Inc., the entity that rates community fire-protection services for insurance purposes. The ISO rankings are on a scale of 1 to 10, with Class 1 generally signifying “superior property fire protection,” and Class 10 indicating the area’s fire-suppression program doesn’t meet the entity’s minimum criteria.
“City of Orlando residents, business owners and visitors can rely on OFD to uphold its mission of protecting lives and property through professional, compassionate, and timely emergency response expected of an ISO Class 1 department,” Canales wrote.
CFAI previously gave Orlando Fire a one-year deferral on the agency’s timeline for updating its accreditation, according to Lieutenant Doug Zabin, who heads up the Orlando Professional Firefighters labor union. That deferral was granted in late September 2024, according to CFAI’s letter.
The CFAI letter lists three required documents Orlando Fire is currently missing and must update to regain its accreditation: a Community Driven Strategic Plan, Community Risk Assessment Standards of Cover, and Self-Assessment Manual.
Orlando Fire’s current strategic plan covers the years 2018 through 2022. A new strategic plan is necessary for planning how to respond to community fire needs, especially given the city’s rapid growth and need to fund fire agency expansions, Zabin said.
“By not having this growth plan, it ends up with our resources stretched very thin. That can then lead to longer response times and gaps in coverage,” Zabin said. “That's why we think the accreditation is important: so we can identify those gaps early, and make sure that the funding and the resources are coming to make sure that we're able to provide the great service that our citizens expect.”
Losing the accreditation won’t immediately affect anything about the fire department’s day-to-day operations, Zabin said. But it could have consequences for future public safety.
“Losing the accreditation, we are losing that roadmap for the future, and it kind of has us flying blind now,” Zabin said.
About a year and a half ago, Zabin told members of the City Council the agency’s strategic plan was out of date.
“Our strategic plan has expired. And we don't have a growth plan for all of this annexation and for all of these [fire] stations,” said Zabin, speaking at a meeting where Council voted to annex more than 62,000 acres of Orange County land into the city. That area includes Orlando Utilities Commission’s Stanton Energy Center, plus the majority of Sunbridge, a master-planned community near Lake Nona.
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Lake Nona is one of the rapidly-growing areas where Orlando needs additional fire services the most, Zabin said. Progress is happening there: a new fire station in the area should be opening any day now, and construction is slated to start on a new station in South Lake Nona before the end of this year, Zabin said.
Other places where the fire agency needs to grow include the area surrounding Universal Studios, as well as Downtown Orlando, Zabin said.
“If you look at the Universal area, they've had the same coverage out there since the early '90s,” Zabin said. “And obviously, that area has grown. There's additional theme parks there, and tens of thousands of hotel rooms.”
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In all, there are currently 32 Florida agencies accredited by CFAI. Of those, 11 are in Central Florida. Below, those 11 agencies are listed in order of the population size served by each agency, beginning with the largest population:
- Orange County Fire Rescue (1.9 million)
- Seminole County Fire Department (337,000)
- City of Kissimmee Fire Department (82,000)
- Sumter County Fire & EMS (50,000)
- City of Ocoee Fire Department (48,000)
- Clermont Fire Department (47,000)
- DeLand Fire Department (40,000)
- City of Winter Park Fire Rescue Department (30,000)
- Maitland Fire Rescue Department (21,000)
- Mount Dora Fire Department (18,500)
- Lake Mary Fire Department (17,000)
