52:14E-16 Procedure during emergency incident, local, county.

6. a. In the event of an emergency incident, the incident commander shall determine whether additional fire service resources are required and, if so, shall first call upon the members of his local fire mutual aid plan.

b. Should the incident commander determine, after calling for assistance from members of his local fire mutual aid plan, that further fire service resources are required to respond to the emergency incident, he shall request that the county fire coordinator place the county fire mutual aid plan into effect. Upon making such a request, the incident commander also shall notify the municipal emergency management coordinator appointed pursuant to section 8 of P.L.1953, c.438 (C.App.A:9-40.1) of the emergency incident so that the municipal emergency management coordinator may alert and utilize his staff should additional emergency resources be required.

c. Upon the activation of a county fire mutual aid plan, the county fire coordinator shall notify the regional fire coordinator assigned to that county and the State fire coordinator with regard to the emergency incident and shall further provide periodic updates to both until termination of the emergency incident. The State fire coordinator shall ensure that the county and State Offices of Emergency Management are notified and provide them with periodic updates until termination of the emergency incident.

d. In the event that the municipal emergency management coordinator determines to mobilize local resources in response to an emergency incident, he shall so notify the county emergency management coordinator appointed pursuant to section 12 of P.L.1953, c.438 (C.App.A:9-42.1) in order that the county emergency management coordinator shall be prepared to respond in the event that local resources are insufficient to effectively deal with the emergency incident.

e. In the event of an emergency incident, the incident commander also may declare a local fire emergency disaster. In making any such determination, the incident commander shall utilize the best information then available.

f. Whenever a local fire emergency disaster is declared pursuant to subsection e. of this section, the municipal emergency management coordinator shall activate the municipal emergency operations plan adopted pursuant to section 19 of P.L.1989, c.222 (C.App. A:9-43.2).

g. (Deleted by amendment, P.L. 2006, c.8).

h. The county fire coordinator shall maintain a liaison with the supervisory representative of the forest fire service in deploying fire service resources and coordinating protection activities during wildfire emergency incidents pursuant to R.S.13:9-1 et seq.

i. The county fire coordinator shall request additional resources, beyond those from within his county, through the regional or State fire coordinator. The regional or State fire coordinator shall utilize the Office of Emergency Management system to request these resources.

L.2003,c.28,s.6; amended 2006, c.8.