Over 35 people attended a basic 20-hour Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training class that was held at the San Bernardino Police Department. The class was led by the police department’s Emergency Operations Manager Eric Cadden.
CERT is a FEMA governmental program in the United States that is designed to allow residents to learn skills they will need to be able to assist themselves and their local community in the event of a disaster. The CERT program not only teaches personal preparedness, but enables CERT responders to react quickly to neighborhood disasters by recognizing, responding to, and to recover from emergency situations. CERT members are trained in disaster preparedness for hazards that they may encounter in their community such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. CERT training will allow professional responders to focus on the more complex and riskier task during an emergency.
While FEMA provides the training materials and guidelines, cities and county agencies are responsible for creating their own CERT programs. The local CERT class attendees were mainly San Bernardino residents, City of San Bernardino employees, and a few out-of-towners who attended the class to meet the minimum requirements for their community’s CERT program.
Ching Trenchard is a local San Bernardino resident, U.S. Army Veteran, and a retired teacher. Ching participated in several exercises during the CERT course, at times taking a leadership role during drills. Daniel Cardoza and his wife Desiree took the CERT training together and participated in many of the training exercises as a team. Daniel said that he heard about the CERT class that was being given at the police department, which was a few blocks from his home. Daniel and Desiree both took the CERT class to do their part to help the neighborhood during a disaster.
Lisa Sherrick and Robert Sepulveda are both City of San Bernardino employees. They volunteered to take the CERT class to help fellow employees and city residents in case of a disaster. Sean Kelly is a resident of San Bernardino and a newly appointed Second Ward Public Safety and Human Relations Commissioner. Sean said that as a retired San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department Dispatcher, public safety is a major concern for her, and taking the CERT class helped her have a better understanding as a Commissioner.
During one exercise scenario that included the extraction of several victims from a building; CERT rescuers had to enter a room full of collapsed victims. Evaluators then tagged the CERT rescuers as casualties and presumed dead. Additional unaware CERT rescuers entered the same room to extract victims, and they also were tagged as dead. This exercise was designed to make the rescuers aware of unseen dangers, be alert and aware of their limitations!
As a fully trained and vetted CERT volunteer, through “mutual aid” agreements; CERT members can be deployed to various disasters throughout the state. As registered Disaster Service Worker volunteers, CERT members are also eligible for workers’ compensation benefits if injured while participating in an authorized disaster-related activity.
San Bernardino City Emergency Operations Manager Eric Cadden encourages everyone to be prepared for an emergency disaster and to take a CERT class to help be part of a solution during a crisis. Several CERT classes are given throughout the San Bernardino County every year. Some Classes are on a straight 20-hour, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday schedule. To accommodate attendees, classes may be broken up over a longer period of time.