All Special Operations Units work together to respond to incidents involving unusual situations that the average fire response unit is not trained or equipped for.

Special Operations consists of the following units:

Hazardous Incident Team (HIT)	Heavy Rescue Team (HRT)	Florida Task Force 3 (FL TF-3)
Medical Special Operations Team (MSOT)	Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT)	Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS)

Hazardous Incident Team (HIT)

The primary service rendered by the HIT is emergency response to hazardous materials incidents within Hillsborough County. The HIT responds to an average of 40 incidents each year. The types of services rendered at the scene of an emergency include site assessment, container evaluation, threat assessment, victim removal, search and rescue, extrication/disentanglement, smoke/toxic gas ventilation, identification/analysis of the material, evacuation, establishing a safe working area, and monitoring or sampling of the material.

The HIT also performs decontamination of personnel and equipment, notification of other agencies, and referral to proper authorities. Another task of the HIT is primary response to the threatened use of Weapons of Mass Destruction or Terrorist incidents. The HIT is comprised of 30 highly trained personnel who staff a HazMat response vehicle, a ladder truck, a decontamination trailer and a foam truck.