Volunteering - Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAMS (CERT)

For this post, I'm sharing the volunteer activity I do these days - Community Emergency Response Team or "CERT" for short.  It's what I feel is my civic duty as an American. I also feel that I have a duty to my fellow humans to be ready to help in a disaster.  If Godzilla or zombies destroy my peaceful little hood, I'm ready.

PV CERT!

Why I Volunteer for CERT

No one likes to think about disasters, but ignoring the potential for one doesn't make it go away.  Here in Los Angeles we have wild fires, earthquakes, mudslides, and the potential for tsunami, HAZMAT and terrorism disasters.  We can't ignore that.  What's worse, most of these things have little to no warning.  Since I feel I have to be prepared for these things, I volunteer with my local CERT team. 

If your hometown turned into this after a disaster like the tsunami in Ofunato, Japan, how would you get water, first aid, or rescue trapped loved ones?  CERT members learn how to become part of the solution after a disaster. And classes are free!

What CERT Members Do

During a disaster, such as a major earthquake, EMS will be busy, VERY BUSY.  Here in my neighborhood we will not expect to see any emergency services for 3 days.  During those 3 days, CERT members tend to wounded, do urban search and rescue, triage, HAM radio operation, and basically hold the fort until the pros arrive.  It can mean the difference between life and death for many.  CERT was developed by the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) back in 1985. (You can find a short history here.)  


SO basically, if there's a wildland fire, earthquake, flood, zombie uprising, you name it, CERT springs into action and assists local Emergency Management System (EMS).  

CERT members, in green, learn a bit of everything, even how to use a fire hose. 

What CERT Members Learn

Here's a course curriculum as taken from my local CERT website:

• DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
  Introduction to disasters, impact of disasters on infrastructures, and the role of CERT volunteers
• DISASTER FIRE SUPPRESSION
  Fire chemistry and basic fire suppression, identifying and reducing potential fire hazards, firefighting resources and techniques, as well as a discussion on hazardous materials
• DISASTER MEDICAL OPERATIONS 1
  Treatment strategies for life-threatening conditions and the principles of triage
• DISASTER MEDICAL OPERATIONS 2
  Head-to-toe patient assessments, establishing treatment areas, treatments for burns, lacerations, fractures, sprains, and other injuries (this is basic information . . . NOT a first-aid class)
• LIGHT SEARCH AND RESCUE (SAR) OPERATIONS 
  Search and rescue priorities and resources, size-up techniques and rescuer safety, lifting, cribbing, and victim removal
• DISASTER PSYCHOLOGY AND TEAM ORGANIZATION
  Post-disaster emotional environment, the Incident Command System, and decision-making and documentation
• TERRORISM
  Risk and threat analysis, types of terrorism weapons, and travel and terrorism
• COURSE REVIEW AND SIMULATION
  Simulation will either be a hands-on drill utilizing newly learned skills or a table-top exercise.

(I do admit I sat in class and imagined the edits to the syllabus if zombie or monster attacks were considered a threat by FEMA.)


To become a CERT member, you will have to take the CERT training from a sponsoring agency like an emergency management agency, fire department or police department in the area where you live or work. (See this link to Citizen Corp's CERT page to search for a CERT group in your area, or to start a group if you have none.  The link is also listed below.)


Training schedules for CERT can vary.  Mine was every Thursday night for 8 weeks from 7PM to 9PM.  It made a long day for me, but I felt the training, (which was FREE, btw), was worth it.

Our Instructors

Our instructors and evaluators were members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) who gave us their time after putting in long days.  (I can't stress upon anyone how amazing these guys and gals are.  You have to be made of something amazing to fight fires and then spend an evening teaching people when you're dead-dog tired.) 

What Happens at Meetings 

The regular meetings in my town are bi-monthly, held on Thursday evenings from 7PM to 9PM.  We have speakers from the FBI, Sheriff's Department, LACFD, FEMA, etc., or practice anything from the curriculum above.  There is usually coffee and food.  We train and catch up on administrative stuff.  If we have a speaker, there is usually a slide show and a Q and A session.  

Our local CERT group is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) in Southern California and meetings are usually packed.

On certain occasions several CERT teams will train together in day or weekend long simulations.  My fellow Californians may have seen local CERT folks in action during our state-wide Shakeout drills.

Battalion Chief Larry Collins, LA County Fire Dept

Urban Search & Rescue (USAR), a typical CERT instructor and special guest.

Last Thursday our guest speaker was Battalion Chief Larry Collins, LA County Fire Department Urban Search & Rescue (USAR).  Chief Collins deploys all over the world,
wherever and whenever LA County Fire Department Urban Search & Rescue and Incident Teams are called to respond. In 2011 he accompanied members of the California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2) to Japan to assist with tsunami relief efforts.   (I almost went on this trip with them as a combat videographer, but was told they didn't need videographers at the last minute.  I missed an opportunity to document what I trained to do.  Bummer.  My still camera counterpart was able to go, however, and it's his images of the tsunami destruction you see on this post.)  

We learned CA-TF2 is a specially-trained and equipped 70-person Urban Search and Rescue Task Force consisting of Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters and paramedics rescue specialists, emergency room physicians, structural engineers, heavy equipment specialists, canine search dogs and handlers, hazardous materials technicians, communications specialists, and logistics specialists.  They have seen the disasters CERT members train for, and they are our best instructors.   Chief Collins was able to show us how tsunami SAR differs from earthquake SAR.  In Southern California, we are at risk for both, so this was great training. 

Northridge Earthquake Damage 1994.  Damage in earthquakes is different from the damage in a tsunami or hurricane.   We train for those differences.
(I was in this quake.  I remember feeling useless and helpless.  I don't feel that way after CERT training. I'm part of the solution now.)

Last Thursday at our CERT meeting we learned that SAR operations focus on the scour line areas of a tsunami-ravaged area.  The scour lines on the hills in the background of this image are where we will find any number of survivors, not the basins as pictured in the foreground, and that affects our target search areas.

In addition to Chief Collins, Captain Blaine Bolin, the new commander of LA County Sheriff's Lomita Station, introduced himself and discuss the Department's commitment to CERT and Disaster Response. He also spoke about other volunteer opportunities at the Sheriff's Department.  CERT members work closely with law enforcement officials during disasters so they are often at our meetings.  (Captain Blaine briefly discussed volunteering at the local Sheriff's Department, which I will talk about in another post coming soon.  Stay tuned!)




LINKS TO CHECK OUT!


Citizen Corps 
http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/ 


LA County Fire Department
http://fire.lacounty.gov/

LA County CERT 

http://fire.lacounty.gov/ProgramsEvents/PECERT.asp

Basic CERT Curriculum

http://fire.lacounty.gov/ProgramsEvents/CurriculumBasicCert.asp

CA Task Force 2

http://fire.lacounty.gov/SpecialOps/TechOpsCA-TF2.asp