Emergency response organisations face the challenge of having a bureaucratic structure and meeting extreme situations where predefined directives cannot cover all possible emerging contingencies. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the concept of links within the framework of emergency response agencies during severely demanding operations. The empirical data are based on fifty in-depth interviews from three crisis events. The results suggest that collaboration during crisis management is facilitated by two types of links—planned and spontaneous—and both can act vertically and horizontally. The results imply an elaboration of the organizational concept boundary spanners.