Pre-Registration Open for Community Emergency Response Team Training
Written by broebling on January 17, 2017
Press Release – Campbell County Emergency Management Coordinator David King has announced Pre-Registration has opened for the next round of Community Emergency Response Team Training.
The classes will be held from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday nights during the months of February and March. In nearly 23 hours of learning, CERT courses should be considered as an introductory or awareness-level training. Topics include disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, CERT organization and teamwork, disaster psychology and terrorism.
“The focus of this training is to make it as much hands-on as possible. You learn more by doing than by just setting in a classroom and being talked to. The students will get to use fire extinguishers to put out a fire. They’ll learn to assess, bandage, splint and move victims. We’ll show them how to use pry bars and cribbing to move heavy objects safely” King said. “And, all the training comes together in a final exercise in which they get to use their new skills to respond to a simulated incident.”
Commonly referred to as “CERT” classes, King notes the training is designed to help citizens “stay out of the victim pool.” If our citizens know how to take care of themselves or their family and friends in times of emergency, then we don’t have to dedicate as many resources to the response when bad things happen. “Our citizens are always the ‘first-on-scene,’ and it’s just as important to know what NOT to do as it is to know how to help. If you get hurt trying to help, then that just magnifies the scope of the incident and response needed.”
Nearly 100 Campbell County residents have taken the classes over the past 10 years, and monthly “additional” training is offered to those that are interested in participating once the initial coursework is completed.
An on-line link is available through the Campbell County EMA website at www.ccgov.net/ccema. Click on the link and complete the pre-registration. Our first student for this year signed up within 90 minutes of the link being made available today!
