El Dorado County Sheriff's Office hosts Community Emergency Response Team Academy

Signups are underway for the 2013 El Dorado County Community Emergency Response Team Academy, which will run four days in April, Sheriff John D’Agostini announced Thursday.

The Community Emergency Response Team Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.

Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.

The CERT Academy will be offer to prospective CERT Volunteers through the El Dorado County Office of Emergency Services (OES). The CERT training promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people that they serve. The goal is for emergency personnel to train members of neighborhoods, community organizations, or workplaces in basic response skills.

CERT members are then integrated into the emergency response capability for their area. If a disastrous event overwhelms or delays the community’s professional response, CERT members can assist others by applying the basic response and organizational skills that they learned during training. These skills can help save and sustain lives following a disaster until help arrives. CERT skills also apply to daily emergencies.

The Academy consists of a total of 24 hours and will be conducted over a period of four days with topics, dates and hours as listed below:

Friday, April 12, 2013 6pm to 10pm Emergency Preparedness and the CERT Organization.
Saturday, April 13, 2013 8am to 5pm Fire Safety and Medical Operations.
Friday, April 19, 2013 6pm to 10pm Light Search and Rescue and Disaster Psychology
Saturday, April 20, 2013 8am to 5pm Terrorism, a Course Review and a Disaster Simulation

For more information about the Community Response Team or to sign up for the academy, contact Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Cathey in the Office of Emergency Services at (530) 621-7660, catheym@edso.org.