CERT: Training starting up for
Community Emergency Response Team
March 06, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Training for CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) is starting up again in a few weeks but more citizens who want to be prepared in case of emergency are needed to fill the class, the City Council learned at the March 2 meeting.
Steve Lazenby told the council that the local CERT “Has been an active program for 10 years,” during which more than 900 people, “The majority in English but quite a few in Spanish,” have completed the course.
Even Limoneira Co. partnered in CERT training at its ranch west of the city.
The next round of CERT training starts March 17: “We only have five signed up,” and Lazenby said 25 students must be enrolled for the course to take place.
The Tuesday classes will be at the Community Center Cultural Arts Center from 6 to 9 p.m.; training lasts six weeks and the final drill — a.k.a. graduation —will be held Saturday, April 25 with the Ventura CERT class.
Lazenby said each class is about three hours and the course is free.
“Not only is it very valuable information to learn I also try to make it very entertaining,” noted Lazenby, who has led CERT training around Ventura County and whose course was filmed for wide cable broadcast.
CERT is a national program started in the early 1980s by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Lazenby said the federally funded program — the same course is taught across the nation — teaches people how to be prepared for and react in an emergency whether for their own household or neighborhood.
Mayor John Procter asked how the number of Santa Paula’s CERT trained citizens compares to other county communities.
“It’s up there,” said Lazenby, who noted that as a Santa Paula Fire Captain — now retired — he was assigned as the city’s first full-time Emergency Response Officer to craft plans for the city and the community.
Although “it’s called the Citizens Emergency Response Team,” Lazenby said, “It’s more about taking care of yourself and your family… ”
Procter noted, “If something happens we would be so stretched,” for professional emergency response.
“There are not enough emergency responders anywhere,” that Lazenby said could fully cover the aftermath of a disaster.
Councilwoman Ginger Gherardi asked if there is an age limit for CERT training and Lazenby noted all ages’ benefit from the training.
CERT is a system developed from the need for a well-trained civilian community emergency work force and early on Santa Paula was a program leader, reflecting the community’s innate concern for others.
The far-ranging program starts with an introduction class that focuses on earthquake awareness, including personal and family preparation and nonstructural hazard mitigation
CERT also teaches the correct use of fire extinguishers and creative firefighting techniques and utility control as well as recognizing and treating life-threatening emergencies, triage and treatment area management.
Classes also go into disaster medical operations and multi-casualty incidents, head-to-toe injury evaluations, recognizing and treating non-life-threatening emergencies and disaster psychology, the latter subject one CERT students are always greatly interested in.
Light search and rescue operations, evacuations, search techniques and rescue methods as well as team organization and management, developing a response team and incident command system and sizing up the situation are also CERT subjects.
Later the CERT training course is reviewed and students take part in a disaster simulation followed by a critique.
Graduation is a celebration of citizens being ready to take care of themselves, their families and — if need be — others in time of emergency, allowing professional emergency workers to concentrate on those who need the most help.
For more information, visit www.spfire.com
