2023 Illinois Compiled Statutes › Chapter 5 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › 5 ILCS 235/ - Interstate Mutual Emergency Aid Act.

(5 ILCS 235/1)
Sec. 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Interstate Mutual Emergency Aid Act.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)
(5 ILCS 235/5)
Sec. 5. Definitions. As used in this Act:
(a) "Emergency responder" includes emergency medical services
personnel and firefighters, including firefighters trained in the areas of hazardous
materials, specialized rescue, extrication, water rescue, and other specialized areas.
(b) "Mutual aid emergency" or "emergency" means an occurrence
or condition resulting in a situation that poses an immediate risk
to health, life, property, or the environment, where the governmental entity having jurisdiction over the situation determines (i)  that the
situation exceeds its ability to render appropriate aid and (ii) that it
is in the public's best interest to request mutual aid from an out-of-state entity with whom the governmental entity has a written mutual aid agreement. "Mutual
aid emergency" or "emergency" does not include a situation that
initially rises to the level of disaster or emergency requiring a
state or local declaration of a state of emergency, unless that
declaration occurs after the initial request for mutual aid has been made.
(c) "Training exercises" means necessary advance actions taken by emergency responders pursuant to a mutual aid agreement in order to prepare to more adequately address a potential mutual aid emergency.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)
(5 ILCS 235/10)
Sec. 10. Mutual aid agreements. In order to more adequately address emergencies that
extend or exceed a jurisdiction's emergency response capabilities,
either without rising to the level of a state or local declaration
of a state of emergency, or in the initial stages of an
event which may later become a declared emergency, a political subdivision of this State, including a county, city, village, township, or other unit of local government, or any combination thereof, may enter into a mutual aid
agreement with one or more units of government from another state. The mutual aid agreement may
provide for coordination of communications, staging, training, and
response to  planned and unplanned events which a local jurisdiction has determined exceed, or are likely to exceed, its emergency response capabilities. When engaged in training, staging, and emergency response in accordance with the mutual aid
agreements, emergency responders from outside of this State are
permitted to provide services within this State in accordance with
this Act and the terms of the mutual aid agreement.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)
(5 ILCS 235/15)
Sec. 15. Licenses, certifications, and permits. An emergency responder from outside this State who holds a license, certificate, or other
permit recognized or issued by another state shall be deemed  licensed, certified, and permitted to render mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency within
this State pursuant to a mutual aid agreement authorized by this
Act, if the emergency responder is (i) acting within the scope of his
or her license, certificate, or permit and within the scope of what an
equivalent license, certificate, or permit from or recognized by
this State would authorize and (ii) acting pursuant to a request for mutual aid made pursuant to a mutual aid agreement authorized by this Act.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)
(5 ILCS 235/20)
Sec. 20. Governmental functions; liability; emergency responders. Any function performed by an emergency responder that is (i) acting within the scope of his or her license, certificate, or permit and within the scope of what an equivalent license, certificate, or permit recognized by this State would authorize and (ii) pursuant to a mutual aid agreement authorized by  this Act shall be
deemed to have been for public and governmental purposes, and
all liabilities and immunities from liability applicable to this State's  political
subdivisions and their officers and
employees shall extend to the emergency responders from another
state while providing mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency  or while engaged in training
exercises pursuant to  a written mutual aid agreement authorized by
this Act. This Section shall not provide greater immunities to emergency responders from outside of this State than those immunities provided to emergency responders with the equivalent license, certificate, or permit in this State. This Section shall only apply to causes of action accruing on or after the effective date of this Act.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)
(5 ILCS 235/25)
Sec. 25. Employee benefits. Emergency responders from outside this State, while
rendering mutual aid within this State pursuant to a mutual aid
agreement authorized by this Act, remain employees and agents of
their respective employers and jurisdictions. Nothing in this Act,
or any mutual aid agreement entered into pursuant to this Act,
creates an employment relationship between the jurisdiction
requesting aid and the employees and agents of the jurisdiction
rendering aid. All pension, relief, disability, death benefits,
workers' compensation, and other benefits enjoyed by emergency
responders rendering emergency mutual aid shall extend to the
services they perform outside their respective jurisdictions as if
those services had been rendered in their own jurisdiction.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)
(5 ILCS 235/30)
Sec. 30. Limitations. This Act does not limit, modify, or abridge the
emergency management compact entered into under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact Act.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)
(5 ILCS 235/99)
Sec. 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.
(Source: P.A. 98-309, eff. 8-12-13.)