This past week, the Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System coordinated and hosted the charter session of the Mutual Aid Presidents Council. The meeting brought together eight states to discuss the status of mutual aid within and among the Midwestern states. Two of the states — Illinois and Ohio — are considered to be the anchor states, along with Florida and California, of a potential national mutual aid system.

MABAS President Chief Jay Reardon chaired the three-day meeting in Northbrook, Ill., which began with an "aerial view" of the eight states' mutual aid systems before discussing interstate response systems. More than 20 chiefs representing state chiefs associations from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin presented their state's intrastate mutual aid systems and its current status.

The goal of the meeting was to establish how the eight states could progress and develop interstate mutual aid response in the event of a large-scale emergency. It was apparent from the conversations that states are responding across borders in emergencies, but issues were not only incompatible equipment, but credentialing, liability and reimbursement between states.

Chief Greg Brown, Region C Missouri Mutual Aid Coordinator and chief of Eureka Fire Protection District, explained some of the events in which the Missouri Mutual Aid System was involved, including the World Series, presidential visits, and preplanning for events and weather-related incidents. According to Brown, fire departments are learning, "When you need help, we ask for it."

As facilitator of the meeting, Reardon described categories of readiness in MABAS terminology as "traffic lights: red, yellow and green." Green is good-to-go, yellow is a caution, and red is "no" and needs work. Throughout the meeting, Reardon would highlight a yellow or red area that the group needed to address.

Reardon also said that despite working toward a regional network, the authority would continue to stay within the states or local jurisdictions. "We are not the MABAS police. My job [within Illinois] is to coordinate the facilities and resources; it's self-accountability. If we were the MABAS police, we would not be as effective as we are today in Illinois."

While there were a lot of questions and discussion, the meeting had a focus that participants would leave with goals and an action timeline established. As I listened to the questions and the answers from the participants, I couldn't help but feel that this meeting was a giant leap forward for the emergency services.

Could this meeting have occurred 10 years ago? Probably not, but the interstate movement is moving forward now from the ground up, and that's better than from the government on down.