Community Emergency Response Team Trained and Ready

The first training session for South Orange's new Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) concluded recently with a class and demonstration of fire safety and responses. The class was the culmination of a 20-hour basic training that covered disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, incident command, disaster psychology and terrorism.

CERT emerged from the Los Angeles Fire Department in the 1990s as a way to better prepare those who might be effected by a natural disaster, most notably in California an earthquake or wildfire. The idea of having civilians equipped with knowledge and training was seen as a major advance in emergency management. Since then, CERT has expanded and now there are 750 CERT programs with 150,000 members nationwide.

As Alex Torpey wrote in Patch editorial earlier this year, CERT members safeguard the community in two main ways. The first is the ongoing effort to keep our town safe and prepared. CERT members have received valuable trainings, interfaced with public safety and emergency services personnel and generally are well-equipped to deal with any public safety related issue that might come up on a daily basis. This means that - for free - 24/7/365 our town is safer. Whether it is knowing what to do in the first few seconds of a fire, what information to give to EMS if you witness a medical emergency or how to turn off your home’s gas in an emergency, the information CERT provides is valuable no matter if CERT has been officially activated for a response or not.

The second primary function of CERT is to support professional rescuers. In a large flood, power outage or man-made incident, recalling municipal public safety personnel can be difficult as only a small number of them actually live in South Orange. Roadway/infrastructure problems could further hinder their ability at getting on scene in town quickly. CERT is an important resource because there will be a cadre of lay rescuers who can begin helping their families and neighbors immediately if disaster strikes.

CERT is entirely constituted of volunteers and funded by external grants. To learn more, visit the new CERT website at www.southorangecert.com