Special Operations

Montgomery County Special Operations is composed of three teams, overseen by the Division of Emergency Management and staffed by part-time paid responders and volunteers. Each team supports and supplements the operations of municipal police, fire, and EMS agencies throughout Montgomery County.

Interested in learning more about a team or becoming a member? Contact Assistant Director for Emergency Management Operations Bill Messerschmidt at wmessers@montcopa.org for additional information.

  • The Montgomery County Hazardous Materials Response Team is capable of detecting and identifying chemical, biological, and radiological materials. In addition, the team is equipped to perform Level B and A entries and technical decontamination, mitigate large spills, and conduct atmospheric monitoring, plume modeling, and facility planning.
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  • The Montgomery County Incident Support Team provides technical assistance and incident management for large-scale operations. The IST focuses on gathering enhanced situational awareness and creating a common operating picture for the Incident Commander. The team is composed of senior-level chief officers and tenured personnel from the following disciplines: law enforcement, fire service, EMS, public works, and emergency management. All members have experience managing complex events and emergencies and are trained to the ICS-400 level or higher.
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  • The Montgomery County Urban Search and Rescue Team provides specialized assistance with structural collapse (breaching/breaking, shoring), technical search (visual, acoustic, & wide area), heavy lifting, trench rescue, confined space rescue, specialized rope rescue, and flood/swift water incidents.
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