CERT

What is CERT?

Local government prepares for everyday emergencies. However, during a disaster, the number and scope of incidents can overwhelm conventional emergency services. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is an all-risk, all-hazard training. This valuable course is designed to help you protect yourself, your family, your neighbors and your neighborhood in an emergency situation. CERT is a positive and realistic approach to emergency and disaster situations where citizens may initially be on their own and their actions can make a difference. In the CERT training, citizens learn to: manage utilities and put out small fires, treat the three medical killers by opening airways, controlling bleeding, and treating for shock, provide basic medical aid, search for and rescue victims safely, organize themselves and spontaneous volunteers to be effective, and collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts.

Why do the CERT Training?

Well, it’s like paying for car insurance. You might never need either; you’d hope not to. But if the occasion arises, having the CERT training, just like having car insurance, means you're as ready as you can be to help yourself, your family and your neighborhood. And, unlike care insurance, THERE IS NO COST FOR THE TRAINING – AND THERE IS NO COST FOR THE EQUIPMENT PROVIDED – IT’S FREE!

The training is FREE and you are eligible if you live OR work in Daytona Beach. The class is highly recommended not just to help your neighbors, but also for your family, friends and coworkers.

How do I join?

CERT members receive 21 hours (two nights per week for three weeks) of initial training, and an opportunity to assist the Daytona Beach Fire Department during other local incidents and special events management. CERT training is provide free of charge to any Daytona Beach resident 18 or over. Any business in Daytona Beach is also eligible.

Interested?

Contact Karen Baum at 671-5422 baumk@dbfd.us, Julie Maddux at 671-5424 madduxjulie@dbfd.us  (After regular business hours, leave a message.)
 

• Describe the types of hazards most likely to affect their homes and communities.
• Describe the function of CERT and their roles in immediate response.
• Take steps to prepare themselves for a disaster.
• Identify and reduce potential fire hazards in their home and workplace.
• Work as a team to apply basic fire suppression strategies, resources, and safety measures to extinguish a burning liquid.
• Apply techniques for opening airways, controlling bleeding and treating shock.
• Conduct triage under simulated conditions.
• Perform head-to-toe assessments.
• Select and set up a treatment area.
• Employ basic treatments for various wounds.
• Identify planning and size-up requirements for potential search and rescue situations.
• Describe the most common techniques for searching a structure.
• Use safe techniques for debris removal and victim extrication.
• Describe ways to protect rescuers during search and rescue.
• Understand terrorism threats and how to shelter-in-place.
• Apply home mitigation techniques.

• Neighborhoods
• Businesses
• Communities of Faith
• Scouting Organizations
• School Staff / Students
• Clubs / Organizations
• Amateur Radio Emergency Services

How did CERT start?

The City of Los Angeles Fire Department developed a pilot program in 1986 to train a group of leaders in a neighborhood watch organization. A concept developed involving multi-functional volunteer response teams with the ability to perform basic fire suppression, light search and rescue, and first aid. This first team of 30 people completed training in early 1986 and proved that the concept was viable through various drills, demonstrations, and exercises. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) decided to make the concept and program available to communities nationwide. In January 2002, CERT became part of the Citizen Corps, a unifying structure to link a variety of related volunteer activities to expand a community’s resources for crime prevention and emergency response.