Carbon County will soon have additional morgue space in the event a mass fatality event happens.

Last week, the board of commissioners entered into an intergovernmental agreement with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for a mobile morgue for the coroner. There is no cost to the county.

Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said the mobile morgue can be used in the event of a “catastrophic accident or if a plane crashes in your backyard with multiple fatalities.”

Carbon County’s coroner currently utilizes space at the St. Luke’s Lehighton location on North 12th St., the former Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital.

Nothstein said that the morgue in the Lehighton campus can only hold approximately four bodies at a time.

“This is something that is staged,” he said. “These are staged throughout the whole state for emergencies.”

In the event of a mass casualty event in another part of the state, the mobile morgue can be transported to that location easily.

The board agreed that while this is a good resource, they hope the county will not have a need to use it.