First and foremost, I have to thank customer Jerry Palman of SET Environmental in Wheeling for referring me over to the MABAS team. If it weren’t for his friendship with some of the MABAS guys, I would not have had the opportunity to learn about this awesome organization!

Most of us who have some sort of connection to the first responder world have heard the term “Box Alarm System” or “MABAS” {Pronounced May-bis} at some point. What exactly is this mysterious organization and why do they have their own channel on the police scanner? I recalled Kasey mentioning it when talking about work and for those that don’t know, Kasey is a police officer in the suburbs.

MABAS = Mutual Aid Box Alarm System

I took a few excerpts from their website to help explain exactly who they are:

–MABAS in partnership with IEMA (Illinois Emergency Management Agency), have established a statewide, non-discriminatory mutual aid response system for fire, EMS and specialized incident operational teams. MABAS has also become a Partner Agency with Cook County’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Together, MABAS and CCDHSEM designs and establishes capability based systems to serve the high density, urban area.

MABAS is a statewide mutual aid system, which has been in existence since the late 1960s. Pre September 11th, MABAS was heavily rooted throughout northern Illinois. Since September 11th, MABAS has rapidly grown throughout the State of Illinois as well as Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan and parts of Iowa and Missouri.

MABAS includes approximately 38,000 of Illinois’ 40,000 firefighters who staff emergency response units including more than 1,600 fire stations, 2,735 engine companies, 500 ladder trucks, 1,300 ambulances (many paramedic capable), 250 heavy rescue squads, and 1,000 water tenders. Fire/EMS reserve (back-up) units account for more than 1,000 additional emergency vehicles.

MABAS also offers specialized operations teams for hazardous materials (40 teams), underwater rescue/recovery (15 teams), technical rescue (39 teams) and a state sponsored urban search and rescue team. An additional element of resource are the certified fire investigators, Incident Management Team members and fleet support mechanics which can be “packaged” as mobile support teams providing assistance with larger scale incidents requiring complicated and time-consuming efforts beyond capabilities of most agencies. —

Illinois has 69 divisions, mostly organized by county, all of varying size and technicality. In order to become a team member, fireman must retain a large number of specializations and certifications such as:

Hazmat

Technical Rescue

Trenching

Structural Engineering

Paramedic

Rope Technician

Rigging

Search and Rescue

K9

Logistics

Dispatch

Ok Wendy, MABAS sounds really neat, but why do we need them?

MABAS serves as a response team when a local incident becomes too large for local law enforcement to handle but too small for the feds or FEMA to get involved.  An example of a routine MABAS activation was the City of Chicago’s LaSalle Bank Building Fire, where twenty-two (22) suburban fire agencies filled in at City of Chicago fire stations to maintain continuity of emergency service to various Chicago neighborhoods. EMS MABAS responses to the City of Chicago, MABAS Division 9, have occurred during mass casualty events related to marathons, Metra and subway train crashes, electrical system failures, and other system surges damaging service levels.

Other large level responses have included the Tamara train derailment, Roanoke tornado, Utica and Harrisburg tornado disasters, and Louisiana Hurricanes Katrina, Gustav and Ike response and recovery effort through an EMAC activation.

The IL headquarters is based in Wheeling and is home to 45 full-time and part-time employees. Each team member has $5000 worth of gear stored and ready to go in the event of a deployment.

There are 450 pieces of equipment in the fleet statewide and 27 main units in Wheeling. This is where I come in! Each unit takes oil and filtration. This becomes a very important part of the daily operations when emergency response is involved.

Since they have to be prepared for a deployment anytime, anywhere, in any condition, and for any amount of time, extra product needs to be kept in stock.

The MABAS engineers have actually outfitted a trailer to store and transport bulk fluids. This allows them to perform PM’s on-site of any deployment if needed. Without their fleet, they would not be able to do what they do. Reliable lubricants are required that can hold up to extreme environments. Lots of dust/dirt, lots of water, lots of heat or cold, and possible longer drain intervals if they are unable to pause for maintenance.

Here are some more pictures from other trailers. Like the lube trailer, they have outfitted shipping containers and old buses etc for gear storage, emergency housing, and personnel transport. It is really quite impressive – when it comes to survival, they have thought of everything and can operate completely independently of society.

They also have a full command center where dispatching/command operations take place and a large converted housing area for workers to sleep in the event of a multiple day incident.

Thank you to all first responders and volunteers for working around the clock to keep us safe!