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Pennsylvania Incident Management Team

The Pennsylvania Incident Management Team (PA-IMT) is a Type 3 Incident Management Team (IMT) that is composed of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania employees that are trained to respond to incidents. The PA-IMT assists the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) in management of the incident, so that it can be turned back over to the AHJ.

PA-IMT maintains a cache of equipment to support incident management capabilities to allow the team to function without placing a burden of the affected jurisdiction.  

Who’s part of the team?

PEMA is the lead agency for PA-IMT, with a strategic partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ IMT to share team members.

PA-IMT is supported by other commonwealth agencies including:

  • Department of Aging
  • Department of Corrections
  • Department of General Services
  • Department of Health
  • Department of Human Services
  • Office of the State Fire Commissioner
  • Pennsylvania State Police

Requesting PA-IMT

If a local jurisdiction has an incident that exceeds their capability for management of the response, the local emergency management coordinator can contact their county emergency management coordinator to determine the availability of local or regional IMTs.

If the county coordinator determines there is an unmet need for an IMT, the county coordinator can place a resource request to PEMA for IMT assistance.

When PEMA receives the request, it will be reviewed to determine if PA-IMT can fulfill the mission. The duty officer for PA-IMT will contact the requesting agency to determine needs, and, if warranted, will activate and deploy the appropriate-sized team to assist.

How long does it take PA-IMT to arrive?

PA-IMT is made up of members located across Pennsylvania. Key elements can be on the scene of an incident in four to six hours from the time the request is approved.

The full team may take 12-18 hours to arrive on an incident within Pennsylvania with a full cache of equipment to set up a base of operations.

What equipment does PA-IMT bring to set up a base of operations?

PA-IMT maintains a large inventory of equipment to support incident management. This equipment can be configured in many different ways to support the particular incident.

The main components of the inventory are:

  • Office Trailers with Satellite Communications capability (2)
  • Office Trailers for work space (2)
  • 32' Cache trailer that serves as the mobile logistics section (1)
  • 24' Trailers to haul the Western Shelter Tents (2)
  • 20' “Short Team Trailer” (1)F-350 Prime Movers (5)
  • F-550 Prime Mover with mobile fueling capability (1)
  • 24' Box truck with lift gate (1)
  • Western Shelter 1935 Gatekeeper shelters with HVAC (2)
  • Western Shelter 20’ Shelter with HVAC (2)
  • Cache palletized for truck shipment (1)