2012 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes
Title 35 - HEALTH AND SAFETY
Chapter 73 - Commonwealth Services
Section 7335 - Assistance

     § 7335.  Assistance.
        (a)  Requests.--A participating political subdivision may
     request assistance of other participating political subdivisions
     or their designated emergency response organizations. All
     requests for assistance shall be initiated from the incident
     commander or authorized designee at an incident location, the
     county 911 center or the county emergency manager where the
     incident occurs. All intrastate mutual aid requests for
     assistance shall be made to the county 911 center or county
     emergency management coordinator or authorized designee in the
     responding county. Intrastate mutual aid requests for assistance
     may also be made through the agency. A written request shall be
     submitted after a verbal request is made as soon as practicable
     or within the number of days that the agency, in its discretion,
     may determine.
        (b)  Response to requests.--A participating political
     subdivision's obligation to provide assistance in the prevention
     of, response to and recovery from an incident or in authorized
     drills or exercises shall be subject to all of the following
     conditions:
            (1)  A responding political subdivision may withhold
        resources to the extent necessary to provide reasonable
        protection and services for its own jurisdiction.
            (2)  Emergency response personnel of a responding
        political subdivision shall remain under the administrative
        and policy procedures and control of their respective
        jurisdiction, including medical protocols, standard operating
        procedures and other protocols, but shall be under the
        operational control of the appropriate officials within the
        incident management system of the requesting political
        subdivision.
            (3)  Assets and equipment of a responding political
        subdivision shall remain under the administrative and policy
        procedures and control of their respective jurisdiction but
        shall be under the control of the appropriate officials
        within the incident management system of the requesting
        political subdivision.
            (4)  The incident commander shall have overall authority
        and responsibility for conducting incident operations and
        shall be responsible for the management of all incident
        operations at the incident site.
        (c)  Reimbursement.--A requesting political subdivision shall
     reimburse the responding political subdivision in accordance
     with procedures established by the committee. A responding
     political subdivision may donate assets of any kind to a
     participating political subdivision. If a dispute arises
     regarding reimbursement, involved parties shall make every
     effort to resolve the dispute within 30 days of written notice
     of the dispute by the party asserting noncompliance. In the
     event that the dispute is not resolved within 90 days of the
     notice of the claim, either party may request the dispute be
     resolved through arbitration. Any arbitration requested under
     this subsection shall be conducted under the commercial
     arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association.
        (d)  Exceptions.--The provisions of this section shall not
     apply to specific mutual aid agreements which exist on the
     effective date of this section and which were made between
     political subdivisions and emergency response organizations to
     cover response to routine incidents.