This new standard will not be an accreditation but will tell you what is needed to obtain an accreditation. It will help you build a set of policies and procedures that will meet the requirements of the accreditation body and standard.

There are other companies or agencies that have obtained this accreditation. A number of people have argued it does not fit fire investigation and is meaningless. They say that this accreditation is for laboratories and not investigation fire units. No matter what the title is I believe it achieves the same results. The company or organization develops policies and procedures to be followed. These are submitted to the inspection body that will be conduct the inspection. In this case, the inspection body is American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA). This body makes the determination as to if the policy and procedures meet the requirement of the standard. If they are approved, these will be used when conducting an inspection of the company or organization. The policies and procedures must include the education and training requirements for the organization or company. Here there is a commitment made as to following these policies and procedures. The company or organization will be inspected to ensure they are complying with these documents. For those that have not been through one of these inspections, I can tell you they do a comprehensive inspection of each of the areas contained in the policy and procedures. They pick individuals and question them on specific investigations they have conducted comparing the written report to what the investigator states was done and how that information compares to the requirements of the policy and procedure. They look at the training records of the individual and ask questions as to what was learned during that training. If your organization states in the policy and procedures that you follow NFPA 921 and 1033, your answers will be compared to the information from those documents.

For those that do not know what ISO is, the following will give you an idea. ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of conformity assessment, the ISO Committee on conformity assessment (CASCO) is responsible for the development of International Standards and Guides.

This International Standard has been drawn up with the objective of promoting confidence in bodies performing inspection. Inspection bodies carry out assessments on behalf of private clients, their parent organizations, or authorities, with the objective of providing information about the conformity of inspected items with regulations, standards, specifications, inspection schemes or contracts. Inspection parameters include matters of quantity, quality, safety, fitness for purpose, and continued safety compliance of installations or systems in operation. The general requirements with which these bodies are required to comply in order that their services are accepted by clients and by supervisory authorities are harmonized in this International Standard.

ISO/IEC 17020:2012 specifies requirements for the competence of bodies performing inspection and for the impartiality and consistency of their inspection activities. It applies to inspection bodies of type A, B or C, as defined in ISO/IEC 17020:2012, and it applies to any stage of inspection. They use the word inspection instead of investigation. When one reads the standard, they find the intended meaning of the word inspection relates to investigations.
Inspection bodies carry out assessments on behalf of private clients, their parent organizations, or authorities, with the objective of providing information about the conformity of inspected items with regulations, standards, specifications, inspection schemes or contracts. Inspection parameters include matters of quantity, quality, safety, fitness for purpose, and continued safety compliance of installations or systems in operation. The general requirements with which these bodies are required to comply in order that their services are accepted by clients and by supervisory authorities are harmonized in this International Standard.
This International Standard covers the activities of inspection bodies whose work can include the examination of materials, products, installations, plants, processes, work procedures or services, and the determination of their conformity with requirements and the subsequent reporting of results of these activities to clients and, when required, to authorities. Inspection can concern all stages during the lifetime of these items, including the design stage. Such work normally requires the exercise of professional judgement in performing inspection, in particular when assessing conformity with general requirements. Fire investigations mainly falls under work procedures or services.

Jim Mazerat
Forensic Investigations Group