The sponsoring agency for Pennsylvania Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue is the Philadelphia Fire Department, through a Quad Party Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Philadelphia, DHS/FEMA Washington, D.C., FEMA Region III and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
The Special Operations Center and administration and management organizational structure support both the federally deployable PA-TF1, as well as the in-state US&R response system.
Since the inception of the National US&R Response System, these personnel have responded to the majority of federally declared disasters where ESF-9 was activated for US&R.
Subsequently, a terrorist aircraft possibly bound for Washington DC crashed in Shanksville, PA.
Concerned that the aircraft could have crashed into one of many cities such as Johnstown, Harrisburg, or York, while en route to its intended target, the Governor's Task Force recommended creation of a US&R capability dedicated for in-state use.
Since its inception, this system has been activated for many localized collapse events, as well as several natural disasters within the state, such as the 2006 northeast PA floods.