MABAS Receives Third Disaster Response Trailer Package

MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) recently took delivery of its third disaster response trailer package from Alaska Structures (AKS) in Glenview, Illinois. This most recent project equips Illinois with a Mobile Shelter System/Semi-Trailer Package providing over 4,000 square feet of floor space for use as safe, environmentally controlled living quarters or work areas. The trailer compartment is furnished with fluorescent lighting and electrical outlets and can be converted into multi-functional command, storage or sleeping space, for up to 28 persons. The shelter system consists of six specially designed fabric structures that can be combined to provide space for 60 beds as a field hospital, or house up to 120 persons in bunks.

The AKS shelter developed for MABAS is engineered to survive the heavy snow loads and high winds of the Chicago region. Shelters are well insulated and each provided with clean, safe electric heat/cooling. All power is provided by a 175 kilowatt diesel generator mounted on the semi-trailer. Refueling is done at a single point at the generator, thereby eliminating logistics, environmental, and safety concerns of fueling individual fuel-fired heat at each shelter. The shelter dimensions and rectangular shape maximize efficient utilization of floor space, and eliminate the loss of usable space typical of oval, dome, or octagonal structures.



Earlier in 2009, Alaska Structures delivered two smaller shelter-trailer packages to MABAS. Each of these smaller systems is equipped with a pair of shelters transported in a 24 foot trailer. The shelter facilities with each trailer provide a total floor space of over 1,400 square feet. Man-portable equipment stores in the trailer which can be towed by a pick-up truck. Each shelter-trailer system includes the electrical distribution system and fluorescent lighting plus 40 beds. The system is designed to allow responders to operate quickly and independently without need of a forklift, warehouse space, or a semi-tractor truck.

MABAS works in partnership with IEMA (Illinois Emergency Management Agency) to provide a statewide, mutual aid response system for fire, EMS and specialized incident operational teams. In July, 2009 MABAS deployed one of the smaller trailer packages as a medical aide station for the Chicagoland NASCAR races, and then rapidly relocated to serve as a command center at the Burr Oak Cemetery crime scene investigation.

BLU-MED facilities can be sized and customized to meet a variety of state and local emergency management and public health needs, with modular options including medical surge wards, patient treatment, decontamination, immunization/drug distribution, negative pressure isolation, and field laboratory units. BLU-MED Response Systems is a division of Alaska Structures, Inc. For more information see www.BLU-MED.com

Alaska Structures (AKS) designs, engineers and delivers the highest quality fabric building systems for extreme environments. Since it was founded in 1975, over 50,000 AKS shelters have been tested and proven in over 50 countries around the world, including more than 28,000 Alaska Military Shelters and 6,500 Alaska Environmental Control Units in Afghanistan and Iraq. For more information see www.AlaskaStructures.com


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