emergency services Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while others deal w ...

, mutual aid is an agreement among emergency responders to lend assistance across

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Jur ...

al boundaries. This may occur due to an

emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

response that exceeds local resources, such as a

disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...

or a

multiple-alarm fire One-alarm fires, two-alarm fires, three-alarm fires, etc., are categories classifying the seriousness of fires, commonly used in the United States and in Canada, particularly indicating the level of response by local authorities. The term multip ...

. Mutual aid may be ''

ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with '' a priori''.) C ...

'', requested only when such an emergency occurs. It may also be a formal standing agreement for

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

emergency management Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actuall ...

on a continuing basis, such as ensuring that resources are

dispatched Dispatched were a Swedish melodic death metal band from Södertälje (originally from the Gnesta Municipality) formed in 1992. History Dispatched was formed just before New Year's Eve, 1991 by Daniel Lundberg and Krister Andersson. Jonas Kimbr ...

from the nearest

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire ...

, regardless of which side of the jurisdictional boundary the incident is on. Agreements that send closest resources are regularly referred to as "automatic aid agreements". Mutual aid may also extend beyond local response. Several states have statewide mutual aid systems. Examples include Washington and Oregon statewide

mobilization Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories and ...

programs. MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) is a regional mutual aid system, headquartered in Illinois, with 1500 member fire departments in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri.

Utility companies A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...

usually also have mutual aid agreements.

Examples

Large municipalities typically have enough fire and

emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...

resources to handle large local incidents. However, in the case of multiple alarm fires,

mass casualty incident A mass casualty incident (often shortened to MCI) describes an incident in which emergency medical services resources, such as personnel and equipment, are overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties. For example, an incident where a ...

s (MCIs) or large-scale hazardous material (

hazmat Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabi ...

) incidents, that municipality may call in resources from surrounding towns to either respond directly to the incident scene or take up quarters in their fire and EMS stations and respond to other incidents in that city or town when local crews are handling a protracted incident. Additionally, if one municipality's resources are on active calls and unable to respond to a concurrent call for service, a neighboring municipality may be dispatched. Other agreements are common in small towns that have either no resources or limited resources. In these cases, local crews are capable of handling small incidents themselves, but in the case of larger incidents, surrounding municipalities will be called in along with the local resources upon initial dispatch. For instance, local fire and EMS departments will typically handle fire alarm activations and automobile crashes while reports of structure fires will cause the automatic dispatch (automatic aid) of surrounding towns. Where a town has no resources of its own, it may contract with one or more surrounding towns to provide all coverage. Such calls for mutual aid are the results of incident escalations as determined by the incident commander. The responses required from other towns are predefined, so all a dispatcher has to do is call the appropriate resources as determined by the "run card" for such an incident. International mutual aid is also common on border communities in places such as Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutual Aid (Emergency Services) Emergency services

Examples

See also

References