When departments band together in a mutual aid pact, problems inevitably crop up. But that shouldn't be a disincentive, as shown by this Illinois consortium of 337 agencies that's survived the past 30 years and is still going strong.

In 1969, a small group of northern Illinois fire chiefs realized the importance of having one mutual aid contract signed by all of their governing parties. In a forward-thinking move, the contract would guarantee tort immunity to protect the member departments from litigation while establishing and recognizing their intergovernmental agreements. As it turned out, the contract would ultimately be so strong that it would be changed only twice in its more than 30 years of existence.

Another facet of the contract that would prove important to its future success was the establishment of a common radio frequency to be used when more than one department gathered to resolve any emergency, no matter its size. As a result, the organization known today as the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System was formed, and a radio frequency recognized as the Northern Illinois Fire Emergency Radio Network was granted.

Since its creation, the organization has grown to include 337 fire departments subdivided into 26 divisions. In fact, mabas protects more than 8.4 million people over more than 10,000 square miles.

Covering the basics Over the years, the goals of mabas have been refined to include standardization in training, radio communications and equipment, with an emphasis on improving operations and firefighter safety. Some divisions may also be concerned with underwater rescue and recovery, cause and origin, and safety officers.

The executive board of mabas is composed of a representative from each of the divisions, usually the president. A president, vice president and secretary govern the executive board, and each division also has a president, vice president and secretary. Chairs appointed by the board coordinate specific areas, such as Policies and Procedures, Hazardous Materials, and Radio Communications.

Each department is represented at a monthly meeting intended to maintain open communications, discussing such topics as standard practices and equipment purchases for hazmat responses, below-grade and high-angle rescues, and other specialized incidents.

Although there's no cost to join mabas, every few years the Executive Board requests a small assessment from the divisions to offset the cost of office equipment, mailing and legal fees.

Some divisions may collect annual dues of up to $2,000 from their member departments, depending on whether the division has a specific goal. Examples include the development and purchase of a technical rescue trailer outfitted with hydraulic shoring and other equipment, or the outfitting and training of a division dive team and its associated response vehicle. Dues also offset the cost of training classes, such as incident management, officer development, hazmat and trench rescue.

As more and more mabas divisions sponsor a wider variety of specialized teams that are available to the entire organization, the benefits of membership become more apparent. When fire departments from rapidly developing geographic areas realize the need for specialized equipment that may be out of their reach, their chiefs usually contact the mabas executive board.

Generally, this first contact takes the form of a local fire chiefs organization, such as the Fox Valley Fire Chiefs, requesting information and a formal presentation. Other times, a non-member department that recently experienced a large-scale disaster or other incident that required resources beyond its means will encourage neighboring departments to enter into a mabas agreement with them.

In either scenario, the requesting departments approach mabas as a group, which ultimately becomes a new division. Rarely, if ever, do executive board representatives contact non-member departments in an attempt to sell them on the benefits of mabas. As a general rule, once departments receive the presentation, they're eager to join.

MABAS successes Some notable mabas accomplishments have been the adoption of incident management and Passport accountability systems and the creation of division-independent task forces.

The mabas organization realized that some departments were using incident management systems developed by their divisions, while others maintained modified versions of those systems. Other departments had no formal command system during emergency incidents.

As a result, the mabas procedures committee was asked to research and recommend one system to be adopted by all participants. This committee is made up of four individuals: a chairperson and three other members from the executive board. Procedures may be initiated and developed by the committee for passage by the board, or they can be recommended to the board by a division president for research by the procedures committee.

Although the committee reviewed several systems that had been submitted by various divisions, none were deemed appropriate for the membership as a whole. As a result, the committee decided to look into the Incident Management System prepared by the National Fire Service Consortium, Model Procedures Committee.

Designed for single- or multiple-agency use, this system provides for the development of a functional command organization, greatly increasing the effectiveness of the incident commander while enhancing firefighter safety. It combines command strategy with organizational procedures. Although it was developed primarily for structure fires using up to 25 fire companies, its organizational design is applicable to other types of emergency incidents.

To complement the fully functional incident management system, different forms of Passport accountability were also being researched and tested by various departments within divisions. Ideally, the adopted system would be easily expanded to accommodate multiple-alarm and mutual-aid companies, as well as volunteer response companies. It would also track specific individuals, such as pios and safety officers.

After a comprehensive review, the committee formed for this sole purpose gave a presentation on a system used by several large West Coast departments at one of the executive board's regularly scheduled meetings. The Passport accountability system was adopted in its entirety.

In another matter that arose last year, several divisions decided that they wanted to establish independent task forces capable of responding to disasters in other divisions. When asked to develop a standard definition for the term "task force," the procedures committee responded with: "A Task Force is defined as a predetermined number of engines, trucks, squads, and ambulances under the command of a chief officer responding from a defined geographic area and having common communications capability."

After accepting this definition, the executive board instructed those divisions interested in maintaining this concept to develop task forces capable of working independently for fire departments at large-scale incidents, such as disasters created by wide-scale flooding and tornadoes within their division. As they're developed, response cards listing task force members will be presented to the board for review by the membership.

Dispatch distinctions Each division uses a specific dispatch center capable of handling a mabas alarm. Also known as a box alarm, this is simply the first call from a department requesting mutual aid. A second, third, fourth or fifth alarm is an additional call for equipment to the same fire or disaster area.

The mabas dispatch center may be the same center from which the call originated, or it may be in another community. In most cases, the communications center given the task of handling all dispatching responsibilities and associated notifications for an escalating incident is larger, with more dispatching capabilities. Examples of dispatch centers that routinely handle these alarms are DuPage Public Safety Communications in Glendale Heights, the Public Safety Answering Point in Naperville and the Regional Emergency Dispatch Center in Glenview.

Dispatch centers capable of handling a major incident use a standardized "box cards" system. The cards contain the specific pieces of equipment from predetermined mabas departments, including engines, tower ladders, heavy rescue vehicles and air cascade units. Each piece of equipment must fit the mabas criteria for that type of unit. For example, a water tanker must carry a minimum of 1,000 gallons. In addition, each department is identified on the card by a four-letter abbreviation.

Every alarm, along with the apparatus that are to respond, is announced on the nifern, the standard radio frequency. If an alarm should go beyond the standard fifth alarm, the dispatch center then refers to an Interdivisional Box Card that lists the equipment each department has agreed to send above and beyond its standard commitment.

Non-member departments stricken by a situation that has depleted their resources can and have approached mabas for assistance. For example, mabas departments rallied to assist the town of Plainfield when it was devastated by tornadoes. Past experiences have shown that if a community is totally overwhelmed, division members will have their respective dispatch centers contact the dispatch center of the affected community to determine if it would like mabas assistance.

Dealing with problems Various issues proposed by divisions to the executive board haven't always been easily resolved. Sometimes they create extreme controversy not only at the board level, but also among the divisions. Occasionally, several departments approach the board with issues that couldn't be resolved within their division, hoping for mediation or a ruling.

For example, there was once a member fire department that refused to send any of its members for the standard hazmat training, despite the fact that its division was home to several industrial parks. Without that training, the department would have to request the division's hazmat team for the smallest of spills. The lack of training would also disqualify the members of this particular department from responding to hazmat incidents within their division.

Other departments in the division believed that the department in question was trying to save the costs of initial training, overtime expenditures for re-certification training and callback pay for personnel who would respond while off duty to situations of this nature.

It was quickly determined that the board's bylaws didn't provide for the mediation of disputes within a division. Some board members were in favor of the idea and actively sought the necessary changes to the bylaws, while others opposed it.

This subject, along with several divisions' desire for regionalization, became the hot topics of debate among both the board and the divisions. After several months of discussion, these concepts were put to a vote. When the votes were tallied, both had failed. It was determined that the divisions should resolve any internal problems.

Of course, as mabas continues to grow - it currently covers the northern third of Illinois and a small portion of southern Wisconsin - the topic of regionalization keeps surfacing. Despite the earlier vote against this issue, the jury is still out.

In the future, the organization will continue to be faced with difficult decisions. Still, it has proved to be a strong organization, and we're confident that it will continue to have a positive influence on the Illinois fire service.