The Beverly Hills Fire Department added three new firefighters to its ranks on Thursday, Oct. 22, swearing in its Probationary Firefighter Class of 2026 after a five-week orientation training program.
Justin Scanlon, Nicholas Kitzmann and Edward Hwang took the oath, the City of Beverly Hills announced on X. The trio joins a force that operates three fire stations and responds to more than 8,600 incidents each year.
The department is one of four agencies in Los Angeles County with international accreditation from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, a status Beverly Hills first earned in 2021. Only 334 agencies nationwide hold that designation, according to a city press release issued in September.
Beverly Hills also holds a Class-1 rating from the Insurance Services Office, or ISO, the highest possible mark on a scale of 1 to 10. Only a small fraction of fire departments in the United States achieve that rating. The city is one of 127 agencies nationwide that hold both a Class-1 ISO rating and accredited status.
The accreditation process occurs every five years and takes two years to complete. It provides fire and emergency service agencies with a framework to evaluate their performance against rigorous benchmarks, including rapid emergency response, highly trained personnel and well-maintained equipment.
Fire Chief Greg Barton said in a September statement that the review "challenged us to take an honest and comprehensive assessment at how we serve the community, identify opportunities for improvement, and establish a clear roadmap for the future."
Residents can learn more about the department at beverlyhills.org/firedepartment.
