CERT: A System That Helps People Help People

By Shannon Hicks

In 95 percent of all emergencies, according to the US Department of Homeland Security, the victim or a bystander provides the first immediate assistance on the scene. Following a major disaster and depending on the number of victims, communications failures and road blockages, first responders who provide fire and medical services will not be able to meet the demand for such services.

Would you know what to do?

That is the challenge presented by Citizen Corps, a grassroots movement that actively involves making emergency personnel and “regular residents” of any city or town able to help themselves and others during an emergency, even before other emergency personnel are able to get to the scene of an accident or natural disaster.

One answer to the “would you know what to do?” question, says the corps, is to become a trained member of a Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT. The training program prepares participants so that they are able to help themselves, their family, and their neighbors during a disaster. Training runs about 20 hours and covers seven sessions: “Introduction/Disaster Preparedness Unit,” “Fire Safety/Light Search & Rescue,” “Disaster Medical Operations,” “Triage,” “CERT Organization,” “Disaster Psychology,” and “Terrorism & CERT.”

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue is the site of two such classes this month. One was held on February 16, and another will run on Saturday, March 1. The classes at Sandy Hook’s main station have combined two sessions each. In other words, attendees at last week’s class, which ran from 8 am until 2 pm, including “coffee and” to begin the day and a lunch break, covered the disaster medical operations and fire safety/light search and rescue sessions. Jack Mangin, from New Milford Ambulance, and American Red Cross instructor Deborah Bressin, also from New Milford, led the morning session.

On March 1 the group will continue in Sandy Hook with two more sessions.

The first class of the current series was conducted via a video link between Danbury’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and Ridgefield’s EOC. The same setup will be used for the fourth and final session next month. Sandy Hook’s main station on Riverside Road is the EOC for Newtown.

Most CERT courses result in a general CERT team.

“Generic teams start with their own neighborhood to see what is needed, what they can do, and just very basic stuff,” said John Will, who taught the afternoon session in Sandy Hook last weekend.

New Milford already has a specialized CERT for veterinarian assistance.

“They will be the ones who set up housing and care for animals, which usually cannot go into shelters during an emergency,” Mr Will said this week.

Those who are participating in the current series that met recently in Sandy Hook will eventually form a specialty team. All of the members of the team hold FCC ham radio operator licenses, and the group will become a ham radio communications team. The 16 members of the future specialty CERT include Ridgefield EOC fire police, Danbury EOC staff, and Bethel EOC staff. Any of the ham radio operators who work at an EOC are volunteers.

“The FCC says ham radio operators cannot be paid,” said John Will, “which is kind of neat because that goes back to the basics of volunteerism in this country.”

Mr Will — a Sandy Hook resident, 24-year member of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue, and licensed ham radio operator — is very involved in the training of the future communications team.

Anticipating Hazards

Prior emergency training is not required for a CERT course. During the course of the training participants learn how to identify and anticipate hazards, reduce fire hazards in the home and workplace, extinguish small fires, assist emergency responders, conduct light search and rescue, set up medical treatment areas, apply basic medical techniques, and help reduce survivor stress.

“Because of my years in fire service, so much of what they’re learning I’ve already had to use as a member of Sandy Hook [fire department],” he said this week. He was the perfect person to stand in, therefore, when the previously scheduled instructor was stricken will illness on Saturday.

For the post-lunch gathering, Mr Will reminded trainees that they are responsible for their own safety before anything else.

“If you go to a site and get hurt or sick, there aren’t going to be many people who are going to be able to start looking at you,” he told them. “We can’t help others if we can’t take care of ourselves first.”

Oscar Fuller, who helped coordinate the current class, added: “Don’t become a victim. Don’t be a drain on the system you’re going in to help.”

“Above all else,” Mr Will added, “it’s important to stay awake, bring what you need, and ask questions.”

Mr Will credits Rocky Tomlinson, the director of emergency services for the Danbury-based American Red Cross of Western Connecticut, with getting the training programs going in this area. The Citizen Corps website currently has 34 registered CERT teams across our state.

Area ham radio operators, said Mr Will, decided to coordinate their emergency training, “so they approached Rocky, who has the resources to get something like this together.”

Mr Will also credits Bill Halstead, who is the chief of Sandy Hook Volunteer Search & Rescue as well as Newtown’s fire marshal and emergency management director, with bringing the CERT training into Sandy Hook.

“Certainly we couldn’t have offered these training sessions if it weren’t for him,” said Mr Will.

In addition to supporting emergency responders during a disaster, the CERT program builds strong working relationships between emergency responders and the people they serve. CERT teams, according to Citizen Corps, also help the community year-round by helping with community emergency plans, neighborhood exercises, preparedness outreach, fire safety education, and workplace safety.

More Classes

There will be more courses like this in the area, Mr Will said. A Basic CERT Session is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 3, at New Milford High School. That series will continue each Monday evening at the high school from 7 to 9 pm. There will be one session on Saturday, scheduled for 9 am to noon, at New Milford’s Northville Firehouse.

For additional information about the New Milford series of classes including rates and prerequisites, contact Karen Bresson at 648-5540 or K_Bresson@yahoo.com.

To be put on a waiting list or to check on other scheduled classes, contact Ricky Tomlinson at the American Red Cross/Western Connecticut office. Located at 2 Terrace Place in Danbury, the ARC/Western Connecticut office can be reached by calling 792-8200. Mr Tomlinson’s email address is emsvc.arc.western.CT@snet.net.

The CERT concept was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985. The Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 underscored the areawide threat of a major disaster in California. It also confirmed the need for training civilians to meet their own immediate needs. As a result, the LAFD created a Disaster Preparedness Division with the purpose of training citizens and private and government employees.

LAFD’s program was recognized as beneficial by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which felt that the concept and program should be made available to communities across the country. By 1994 the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), in cooperation with LAFD, expanded CERT materials to make them application to all hazards.

Then in 2003 the Citizen Corps was created to spearhead the CERT effort in response to President Bush’s request for all Americans to volunteer in the service of their country. In Connecticut, Citizen Corps works with the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security to host training.

“Everybody kind of gets to a point where they say ‘Well what’s Homeland Security doing for me?’” said Mr Will. “Here’s one answer. It’s teaching people how to take care of themselves and their neighbors.”

To learn more about CERT and other Citizen Corps programs, visit CitizenCorps.gov or CT.gov/demhs and click on the CT Citizen Corps Program.