A new crop of CERT personnel wrapped up their training last weekend, but not before pulling disaster victims from a burning house.
The Community Emergency Response Team program, offered by the Mountain View Fire Department, teaches essential skills to residents so that they can provide effective first-response capabilities in the event of a natural disaster or other catastrophe. Fire department and other emergency personnel teach the seven-week course, covering such topics as impact on infrastructures, firefighting techniques, triage and treatment of victims, light search and rescue, and the post-disaster emotional environment. The program is free to all Mountain View residents.
In case the unthinkable happens, CERTs, as the graduates are called, work with the fire department to help prioritize emergency response. During a crisis, “They give status reports to the fire department so they know what’s going on in the city,” explained Lynn Brown, coordinator of the city’s Office of Emergency Services.
Emergencies hit hardest when precautions are not taken, so one philosophy of CERT is to teach trainees to protect themselves so that they can better help others. Brown, who conducts part of the program, continually tells his pupils, “Stay within your limitations. Don’t fight big fires. You’re not a doctor. With CERT, you know an ambulance isn’t coming.”
Disaster simulation prepares students. The learning environment is intense as they search a smoke-filled house, rescue victims, extinguish a fire, or lift a large cement slab. Coaches pressure students to think and act quickly. June Welsh, a volunteer teacher in the program, said that “We pressure them, because in case of an emergency, the adrenaline will be pressing hard.” One graduate said she had to fight her instinct to flee while searching the house.
CERT training is offered throughout the year, and includes a Spanish-speaking session — the one which wrapped up last weekend — led by community outreach coordinator Blanca Cinco. The bilingual course is important, Cinco said, because “In the real thing, this is what’s going to happen. People will be speaking Spanish and English.”
Many participants in the bilingual course are day laborers, Cinco said, and give up work time in order to take the course. She hopes enough interest is generated that the course is offered in other languages as well.
The program has evolved in various ways since its inception in 1995. Since the course follows FEMA guidelines, yearly modifications and emphasis on hands-on practice enable students to be more prepared. Cinco added that Brown’s oversight of the program since 2001 has been great, “because it gets more and more real.”
Welsh said that preparing individuals to respond to emergencies is crucial, because disasters take people out of their comfort zones. In a night-time earthquake, for example, “Lights are out, the sofa may have moved. … There is broken glass by your bed. Things are very different from when you went to bed.”
To learn more about the CERT program, or to see a schedule of upcoming courses, visit www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/citydepts/fd/cert.htm. Information and registration is also available by calling (650) 903-6378.
E-mail Christine Lopez at clopez@mv-voice.com
