About MABAS Division 3
MABAS Division 3 includes the north shore communities bounded by Highland Park on the north, Evanston and Skokie on the south, Des Plaines and Prospect Heights on the west, and Lake Michigan on the East. Currently, eighteen north shore departments belong to MABAS Division 3, providing service from 40 fire stations and over 950 firefighters.
The MABAS system allows departments to serve citizens in ways far beyond MABAS’s original intent. MABAS Division 3 shares cost effective specialized teams for hazardous material spill control, underwater rescue and recovery and specialized cave-in or high-angle rescues. Additional activities of MABAS Division 3 include cost saving joint purchasing between communities for fire trucks, engines, ambulances, tools, hose and equipment.
Many Division 3 communities utilize automatic first response where the closest station responds when an incident occurs. Such automatic aid responses ignore geo-political boundaries between communities in the best interest of citizen service and cost effectiveness.