Mounted search and rescue

["IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

This is contained within the new PA Intrastate EMAC statute.  Interstate
EMAC leaves this up to the bilateral agreement.  Many PA governments self
insure for comp and vehicle/equipment losses or through a regional plan
(example: The Delaware Valley Insurance Trust [DVIT]) and in the past
subrogated claims against the requesting agency.  This meant the injured
parties waited for years while the insurance companies argued over who paid.
DVIT has a flat $1000 deductible for any claim, whether you lose a
walkie-talkie or a ladder truck and allegedly never pays a comp claim in
less than 5 years. The statute now assigns insurance liability even before
you sign on.

In the past intrastate mutual aid was very informal, often a handshake, and
some of the interstate agreements were not much more.  For instance,
Philadelphia Fire once assigned units to Camden City, NJ stations for weeks
without an agreement and often goes there in task force strength.  Recently,
a full city alarm assignment (2 engines, a ladder, chief) was mistakenly
sent to an out of city fire (cellular call for lots of smoke and fire),
arriving as the suburban volunteers pulled up and they just went to work
where in the past they would have gone home, indicating a new attitude.  

PA's 9-1-1 law requires regional dispatch and sets strict standards for
PSAPS and personnel.  It also requires that all responders in the dispatch
region agree to mutual aid to be part of the system.  This is a
multi-lateral condition and not subject to PA-EMAC unless the townships want
it to. 

Being historically a volunteer protected state PA really never had mutual
aid compacts until the lawyers got involved, and EMAC replaced federal
requisitions.  During Katrina we mobilized task forces for EMS and state
police on FEMA alerts but they never went.  These task forces included car
carriers with team drivers for the patrol cars and ambulances, buses for the
crews, and shop trucks loaded with spare parts and fuel tankers.  Around
here the requesting agency is often a volunteer manned agency and they take
care of the volunteer responders, sometimes without being asked.     
The lack of centralized resource tracking outside of the command post, and
sometimes not even there as calling one agency may trigger an EMAC with
another, is the downside of this old boys network approach that is coming in
with bi-lateral agreements.  I once ran a fire with over 40 different fire
companies involved and never had to specify who was on the agreement beyond
that they shared at least one radio frequency with us (before trunking you
had to do that).   

Irv Lichtenstein 
-----Original Message-----
From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jorene Downs
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 11:30 PM
To: 'Mounted search and rescue'
Subject: [MSAR] EMAC / FYI SAR Callout in Madision Couty VA

Irv, can you provide a source supporting your statement (below) on a recent
EMAC "law" change?