About

About Us

We are a volunteer team, managed by our non-profit Board of Trustees. A 225-person volunteer team split into modular specialties focused on the needs of Local, County, and State Emergency Medical Services and supporting their preparedness for, response to, and recovery from disasters.

When the world falls apart in the wake of unprecedented disaster, how do we keep our loved ones safe?
After September 11th, a group of EMS professionals assembled to devise a plan to do just that. Through organization, preparation, exercise and detailed planning, the NJ EMS Task Force creates structures and response plans to keep the tri-state area safe.
Their unique modular structure and asset allocation across the tri-state area ensures that plans can be put into place rapidly respond to any disaster, or provide any level of assistance and security to pre-planned events.
This is the story of the Men and Women who dedicate their lives to keeping the people of New Jersey safe and secure in the most tumultuous of times.

Staging & Accountability Check-In Station

Planning Module around table in a planning meeting

Planning Module in a Planning Meeting

The New Jersey EMS Task Force represents more than 200 career and volunteer EMS providers throughout the she state who are highly trained to respond to large-scale man-made and natural disasters, catastrophes, as well as pre-planned events.

The New Jersey EMS Task Force was formed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In the weeks and months after, EMS leaders from around New Jersey gathered to develop an organization to plan for, to train for, and to help coordinate a statewide response to a disaster of any kind.

Today, the NJ EMS Task Force represents top-line EMS providers from career and volunteer services, hospital-based advance life support providers, and communications teams. Additionally, the NJ EMS Task Force has specialized equipment, including a medical ambulance buses capable of handling up to 20 patients, strategically stationed throughout the state and ready to respond to any emergency at a moment’s notice. Members undergo intensive all-hazards training to include chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) and to remain equipped to engage in a sizable support role for all types of emergencies, as well as provide emergency care and transportation of the sick and injured. The Task Force regularly trains together to prepare for the myriad of possible emergent situations for which it might be called upon to assist. Task Force members also participate in exercises and conduct training for other EMS providers as needed.

Since its formation, the NJ EMS Task Force, working hand-in-hand with county office of emergency management coordinators, the New Jersey Department of Health, and other stakeholders in law enforcement, public health, and emergency management offices, has been critical in the response to such events as Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, the hurricanes that hit the US Virgin Islands, wildfires, flooding in Bound Brook, a fire on the Seaside Heights boardwalk, and the crash of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River.

In fact, the NJ EMS Task Force’s critically praised response to Superstorm Sandy has been used as a model for EMS organizations around the country to plan for and respond to major natural disasters.

The group also provided EMS resources, planning, and staffing at such planned events such as Super Bowl XLVIII, the New Jersey Marathon, the Warped Tour concerts, the New Jersey Balloon Festival, and Bamboozle.

The NJ EMS Task Force was activated in March to be part of the state’s efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, members have handled such missions as providing administrative and logistics support at the mobile testing sites; deployed Western Shelter tent facilities at 20 hospitals; placed oxygen generators at various facilities; and coordinated the deployment of its medical ambulance bus fleet to transport COVID-19 positive patients from long term care facilities and hospitals. The team is also staffing regional temporary morgue sites, providing logistics for a FEMA deployment of out-of-state ambulance teams into New Jersey; working to obtain and distribute PPE; and coordinating state EMS needs.

The NJ EMS Task Force is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that operates on funding from donations, grants and the N.J. Department of Health