The problem was that the Johnson City Fire Department (JCFD) has not examined its abilities or capacities for mitigating communal emergency incidents upon activation of our Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The purpose of the research was to explore functional recommendations of out EOC in terms of sustainable communications, officer development, design features, and potential benefits of Incident Management Teams (IMT) to the administration of the JCFD. This advanced research project (ARP) was conducted using the descriptive research methodology.The research questions addressed the following: (a) what processes, plans, systems, and/or technologies are in place to sustain communications during prolonged emergencies at our EOC? (b) What knowledge base or experience levels exist within the JCFD's command staff in regards to EOCs and IMTs? (c) What triggers the activation of our EOC? (d) What components and design features are incorporated into our local EOC? (e) Is the integration of IMTs beneficial to functions of the EOC? Procedures included gathering data through a literature review commencing at the National Fire Academy's Learning Resource Center (LRC), an intradepartmental questionnaire, a regional questionnaire, and two interviews.Results of the research indicated that our EOC has redundant communication systems with backup power supplies, that EOC/IMT competencies need developing within the JCFD command staff, that catastrophic events triggers our EOC, that local EOC features were identified, and that IMTs are beneficial to EOC functions. Recommendations include developing a regional IMT and enhancing our abilities to function in an EOC/IMT through competency, procedural, communications, and training development.