The problem was no criteria had been identified to guide city department leadership having limited emergency response experience on when to activate the Emergency Operations Center. The purpose of this research was to identify criteria for activating an Emergency Operations Center in Burlington, Vermont to assist department leadership in making an activation decision. A descriptive research method was used to complete this research project. Research questions included: what activation criteria are other fire departments/emergency managers throughout the industry using; what best practices currently exist for activating the Emergency Operations Center which is similar to different departments; what criteria for activating the Emergency Operations Center are unique among different departments; what requirements must be met to request an activation of an Emergency Operations Center at the State Emergency Operations Center? Procedures for this research project involved a literature review at the University of Vermont library and online search engines. Also, interviewing with a subject matter professional; and conducting two surveys, one with departments of various size and community population and one within Burlington with city department heads. Interview information and survey results from varying fire departments were used to generate specific questions for the department head survey. Results showed department heads would favor trigger points for activating our EOC, very few departments have any MOUs in place, and criteria such as staffing and critical mechanical resources have not been considered. City departments consider multiple agency responses, duration of incidents, weather, and infrastructure damage as important criteria when considering an EOC activation. Recommendations include annual basic disaster operation training, initiating memorandums of understanding with outside agencies, implementing basic activation criteria like staffing minimums, resource minimums, unique responses and weather conditions. Also included is a system to monitor all city departments to reduce strain and resource delay by maintaining situational awareness.