Saving Lives, a Personal CERT Training Journey

I am a lifelong learner and an over-preparer of sorts. So when the opportunity to take Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) presented itself and the schedule clicked with mine, I jumped at the chance.

CERT classes are free and offered year-round throughout LA County. CERT’s mission is to educate residents and businesses on emergency preparedness and disaster response.

When a disaster such as an earthquake strikes, first responders may not get to everyone as quickly as they want to. CERT-trained residents can help themselves, their families and their neighbors until the first responders arrive at the scene.

With my zero medical background, I absorbed all the new information like a dry sponge. I took down notes with diligence reminiscent of my college and grad school days.

Every Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m., I showed up at and listened to our instructor Maria Grycan with rapt attention. Grycan, community services representative of the LA County Fire Department, began the seven-week course by introducing the different types of disasters and zeroing in on earthquake awareness.

For California transplants like myself, watching videos of the 1994 Northridge disaster was surreal. The images of destruction and debris compelled me to start putting together an earthquake disaster kit the following day. Grycan would be so proud!

My favorite was the second class: fire suppression techniques, which marked my initiation into the proper use of a fire extinguisher. It is not as intimidating as it looks. I felt like a kid with a new toy on Christmas morning.

I teamed up with Brynna Steinhardt, who is waiting to get into the sheriff’s department. “I’m taking CERT to get ahead of my sheriff’s deputy training,” said the Agoura Hills resident.

Like Steinhardt, Anthony Montoya also signed up for career advancement. The Woodland Hills resident is enrolled in a one-year fire technician program at Valley College and wants to be a firefighter one day.

There were also others who did it for personal reasons, like Maureen Belka. “The day I moved to California was the day of the earthquake in Japan so that was an eye-opener,” said the recent transplant from New Jersey. “I wanted to be prepared since we don’t really have earthquakes in the East Coast.”

Friends Lola Stone and Holly Atwater, both stay-at-home moms of teenagers, did it for their families. “The various modules really make you hyper aware of things you take for granted,” said Stone.

“My biggest take from this entire session is the ‘always look for exits’ wherever you are,” said Atwater, referring to a video of a night club fire that resulted in a stampede because everyone thought there was only one exit.

Grycan also expertly tackled medical operations, multi-casualty incidents, search and rescue operations, disaster psychology and terrorism. The class got more intense when the concepts of triage and incident command systems (ICS) were introduced, as we were divided into response teams.

Led by an incident commander, we had to decide whether we were responding to an incident and how many people and equipment we were sending. Steinhardt, a natural leader and quick thinker, was my incident commander. This was teamwork at its best.

However, all good things must come to an end. For “Graduation Day,” we had finals, like simulation exercises, applying all the theories we learned.

I was a “victim” first and I picked an easy injury–swelling in my right eye with some matching disorientation. My “act” was not Academy Award-worthy but kudos to my “rescuers” for categorizing my injury correctly as “delayed,” meaning, I was a “walking wounded” and could assist rescuers if needed.

We switched roles soon after and as “rescuers,” it was my group’s turn to do a triage or to sort “victims” according to their injuries. It was comfortable chaos, if there is such a thing, in our “command center,” but we learned and laughed as we made mistakes.

As we received our certificates and nifty backpacks, complete with emergency supplies, I can still hear Grycan’s voice in my ear, “Do the greatest good for the greatest number.” In a nutshell, that is the essence of CERT.

The next CERT classes are scheduled to start in September. Check the Agoura Hills web site or call 818.597.7314 for more information.