Santa Paula CERT members - including Mike Gray, Martha Brown, Rick Barnett and Gene and Barbara Dunn - under the direction of SPFD Firefighter and CERT instructor Bernie Arana conducted the fire extinguisher portion of the training. Also on hand were Santa Paula Engine 81 and crew Austin Macias and Terry Bell. “They were there all day to assist with the event and to respond as first up if there were any emergencies,” noted Lazenby.
Other training exercises included communications training, traffic control, filling and placing sandbags, and the use of handy materials such as lumber or steel to move heavy objects to extricate victims buried under fallen buildings and walls. Known as cribbing, the exercise showed that leverage could go a long way in an emergency. The main training event was a combination of search-and-rescue, triage and treatment of volunteer “victims” covered in fake blood, an exercise that lasted three hours.
Lazenby stressed personal safety, noting volunteers are taught to be careful of their own safety to better help others. Overall, Lazenby said the CERT Expo was “well planned and executed... and everyone left with improved emergency response skills” as well as a “larger group of new emergency ready friends from all over the county.”
