The Greensboro Fire Department is a Class I, Internationally Accredited fire department. The Department has maintained its Class I rating with the most recent evaluation effective on September 24, 2018.

ISO CLASS I 
The National Insurance Services Office (ISO) collects information on municipal fire protection efforts in more than 44,000 fire response jurisdictions throughout the United States. In each community, ISO analyzes the relevant data using its Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS). It then assigns a Public Protection Classification (PPC) from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents exemplary public protection and Class 10 indicates the area's fire suppression program doesn't meet ISO's minimum criteria.

By classifying a community's ability to suppress fires, ISO helps the community evaluate its public fire protection services. The program provides an objective, countrywide standard that helps fire departments in planning and budgeting for facilities, equipment, and training. By securing lower fire insurance premiums for communities with better public protection, the PPC program provides incentives and rewards for communities that choose to improve their firefighting services. 

Fire Accreditation International
The Greensboro 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 Greensboro Fire Department is one of 291 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence Inc. (CPSE) 

CFAI is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency service agencies worldwide in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation in order to provide continuous quality improvement and the enhancement of service delivery to their communities. The CFAI process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess their service delivery and performance internally, and then works with a team of peers from other agencies to evaluate their completed self-assessment. 

Accreditation is valid for five years and in 2018 the Greensboro Fire Department received this status for the fifth time since 1997. Currently, agencies have reported they spend approximately 2,000 hours preparing the required accreditation documents and up to 13,000 hours addressing all things they learn from the self-assessment. It is our experience that agencies generally take 3-5 years to work through the process to achieve accredited status. To be recommended for accreditation, a fire department must complete a self-assessment of the department. The assessment encompasses 10 major categories which are further divided into 43 criteria with more than 258 performance indicators, ranging from response time benchmarking, training, resource deployment, public education and more. Along with this assessment, the department must also compile a strategic plan and a risk hazard assessment. 

There are more than 25,000 established and listed fire departments in the US and less than 12 percent of the United States population is protected by an accredited agency. This continuous improvement process ensures that residents are receiving accountable, credible, professional urban fire and rescue services that meet and/or exceed current fire industry standards.