Six regional teams provide the State with access to fully equipped hazardous materials teams that can assist a local jurisdiction in responding to a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) terrorism incident. The teams are available within one hour to all communities. Each Hazardous Materials (HazMat) team consists of 40 to 70 firefighter/HazMat technicians and support personnel drawn from participating local fire departments. Each district has one or two Operational Response Units and one Technical Operations Module. An Operational Response Unit is a HazMat equipment vehicle that carries all personal protective equipment and control equipment that allows the teams to enter an “immediately dangerous to life and health” environment and/or less severe environment. The system can be configured to decontaminate ambulatory patients, non-ambulatory patients, and emergency response personnel simultaneously. The Technical Operations Modules are science and control units for each HazMat team and contain the chemical detection monitors and communications equipment for the teams. The Department of Fire Services has proposed the establishment of “decon companies” within fire departments in each of the 15 fire districts in the State that are equipped to conduct mass decontamination of victims of a chemical or biological weapons attack. Each decon company would be provided with equipment that is stored on trailers and maintained in a ready state by the local department. While some hospitals in the State have developed a decontamination capability for single patients, few, if any, have the ability to decontaminate multiple patients arriving at the same time. In order to provide the capacity to decontaminate victims at the hospitals without further taxing hospital personnel, the establishment of additional fire department decon companies has been proposed. These companies would be based in communities with hospital emergency departments and would respond directly to predetermined hospital during a terrorism incident.