Home 5 Office of the Director 5 Operations 5 Response Operations

Response Operations

US President Joe Biden visits the California State Operations Center

The Response Directorate leads the State’s incident response efforts and maintains emergency management situational awareness during an incident. Responding to a disaster means addressing the short-term, direct effects of an incident or threat. Response includes immediate actions to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs.

The Cal OES Response Directorate addresses all types of threats and hazards, ranging from accidents, technological hazards, natural disasters, human-caused incidents, pre-planned events, proactive preparedness measures, and mutual aid coordination.

The Response Directorate reinforces local responses to incident areas by coordinating state-level government, private sector, and nongovernmental roles in support of local governments and other entities. Responses are conducted in accordance with the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS).

Explore this Section

Response Operations Regions

Cal OES Admin Regions

Response Technologies

Innovative technology solutions to aid in disaster response

Fire & Rescue

Operations, Reimbursement, Regions, Fleet, Hazmat, and more

State Operations Center (SOC)

State Coordination and Headquarters Divisions

Law Enforcement

Training, Mutual Aid, Search & Rescue, Coroner, and LEOC

Warning Center

The central information hub for statewide emergency communications and notifications

Administrative Regions Interactive Map

The Cal OES Regions map depicts California Administrative, Fire Mutual Aid and Law Mutual Ad Region boundries and provides contact information for each.