Pacific Northwest Emergency Management Agreement

Purpose

Regionally-based emergency preparedness, response, and recovery measures will benefit all jurisdictions within the Pacific Northwest and best serve their respective national interests in cooperative and coordinated emergency preparedness. This compact does not limit, prevent, or modify any other civil emergency agreements, such as the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

Summary

Liability

An individual who, in good faith, provides aid in another jurisdiction will not be held legally responsible for acting or failing to act. They can be held legally responsible for acting with extreme carelessness or intent to cause harm. An individual or entity who is providing aid outside of their home jurisdiction will be considered an agent of the requesting jurisdiction and will be entitled to the same legal protections as an agent from the requesting jurisdiction.

Licensure Reciprocity

An individual who holds a license, certificate or other permit to practice a professional, mechanical, or other skill in their home jurisdiction and who, pursuant to this compact, provides aid outside of their home jurisdiction will be considered licensed, certified, or permitted in the requesting jurisdiction.

Workers' Benefits

An individual who is a member of the emergency forces and who sustains injury or suffers death while providing services in their own jurisdiction or in another jurisdiction is entitled to workers' compensation.

Text

Article VI - Liability A person or entity of a signatory rendering aid in another signatory pursuant to this arrangement is considered an agent of the requesting signatory for tort liability and immunity purposes. A person or entity of a signatory rendering aid in another signatory pursuant to this arrangement is not liable on account of an act or omission of good faith on the part of such forces while so engaged or on account of the maintenance or use of equipment or supplies in connection therewith. “Good faith” in this article does not include willful misconduct, gross negligence or recklessness. Article V - Licenses and Permits Whenever a person holds a license, certificate or other permit issued by a signatory to the arrangement evidencing the meeting of qualifications for professional, mechanical or other skills, and when such assistance is requested by the receiving signatory, the person is deemed to be licensed, certified or permitted by the signatory requesting assistance to render aid involving the skill to meet an emergency or disaster, to the extent allowed by law and subject to limitations and conditions as the requesting signatory prescribes by executive order or otherwise. Article VIII - Workers’ Compensation and Death Benefits Each signatory shall provide, in accordance with its own laws, for the payment of workers’ compensation and death benefits to injured members of the emergency forces of that signatory and to representatives of deceased members of those forces if the members sustain injuries or are killed while rendering aid to another signatory pursuant to this arrangement, in the same manner and on the same terms as if the injury or death were sustained within their own jurisdiction.

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