Huntington County
Emergency Management

Emergency Management is a state government organization that includes 2 full-time directors and a group of 25 volunteers. HCEMA provides a variety of services including traffic control during fire and police incidents, scene securityn and weather-spotting. HCEMA is unique from most groups in the state because it also provides county-wide Dive Rescue and Hazmat Response to assist local fire departments on larger incidents. HCEMA shares quarters with Hungtington County Rescue (a separate entity) and responds from a central station in the City of Huntington.

Like most EMA's around Indiana, the Huntington County EMA is govenered by the County and by the State for day-to-day duties. HCEMA assists with traffic control on accident scenes, fire scenes and downed power lines. They also work a lot of details throughout the county for parades, special events, festivals and etc. HCEMA also does weather spotting so that the residents of Huntington County receive as much warning as possible for inclement/dangerous weather. They provide assistance with scene security, like sitting at a fire scene until the investigation can be done or setting up perimeters around crimes scenes. They assist with evacuations (there have helped evacuate an area of town because of a natural gas leak and then do a perimeter control around that scene). HCEMA provides a mobile command trailer for the fire departments and law enforcement to use. They  provide search and rescue with a team of 4 dogs and 3 handlers and a team of 12 ground pounders, which are people that are trained to search areas that may have clues dealing with crimes or missing people.

Unlike several other EMA's however, the HCEMA provides two unique services. They provide a dive team for county-wide rescues that is available for mutual-aid to surrounding counties. They also handle all Hazardous Material spills in the county that are beyond what the local fire department has the equipment or training to handle.