Many Laurens County EMS personnel are active on the county’s special operations response team, S.O.R.T.  This team is coordinated through the Fire Coordinator’ s Office and is administered by an advisory board consisting of several emergency service department heads from the county, the City of Laurens, and the City of Clinton. 

The team currently has 3 divisions consisting of hazardous materials response, technical rescue, and search and rescue.  Each division is overseen by a team leader and an assistant team leader.  In addition to these divisions, 3 more divisions are being developed.  These include swift-water rescue, collapse and shoring, and dive rescue. 

All personnel assigned to these teams operate at an operations and/or technician level.  EMS personnel operating on this team continually advance their rescue related knowledge and skills by attending classes in the state, at the National Fire Academy, and at the TEEX Program in Texas.  Three of the S.O.R.T. members from the EMS department are also active on the South Carolina Task Force 1 Search and Rescue Team.