Local fire departments to team up for emergency responses

POLAND, Ohio (WKBN) – Mahoning County’s fire departments are creating a new emergency response team.

This comes after several critical incidents have happened over the last few years.

An Incident Management Assist Team (IMAT) will be coming to Mahoning County. The team will be there to better organize and manage emergencies across the county. This new team could take effect within the year.

Discussion of this new team happened shortly after the gas explosion at the Realty Building. While discussions began recently, the train derailment in East Palestine was also cited as another reason to create this team.

Depending on the situation, the team will have designated members in charge of organizing or requesting critical responses. Poland Assistant Fire Chief Conner O’Halloran says it’s an organized effort among all the fire departments. The IMAT’s responsibilities will change, depending on the incident.

“We really identified, hey we need to work together because no one agency is going to be able to handle ‘high-profile incidents’ and that’s the idea — to activate this team — and it could be something as simple as helping a rural agency with a house fire,” said O’Halloran.

O’Halloran says much of this will work through existing mutual aid agreements across the county. The new team will consist of mostly ranked officers.

Asst Chief O’Halloran believes it could be active this fall.

O’Halloran said other countries have something similar.

‘We’re just kind of building ours to mold what our need is in this area. I’m very happy there seems to be a lot of interest with us. I’m very happy that our medical command is university hospitals, they’re involved. Mercy Health is involved,” said O’ Holloran.

O’Halloran says most of it is in effect with existing mutual aid agreements. The development of the team will just create a better-organized effort.

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