The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), a program offered through the Queen Creek Fire and Medical Department, educates volunteers about preparedness. It helps better prepare individuals to respond to emergency situations in the community.
As a part of President George Bush’s community-based initiative to engage citizens in homeland security and preparedness, CERT educates citizens in giving critical support to first responders, providing immediate assistance to victims and organizing volunteers at a disaster site.
This program focuses on hazards that are most likely to impact the area and provides basic training for disaster response like fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and more.
CERT is a 20-hour course that is provided over a four-week period. Classes are typically on Thursday evenings, with two classes on Saturdays. The class is limited to 25 attendees and participants must be Town of Queen Creek residents or live within the Queen Creek County Island Fire District.
Training sessions include disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, and team operations.
The town conducts one CERT training class per year, with the next one kicking off on Thursday, Feb. 8. The course will be taught by a team of two trained first-responders. The trainers are required to complete the CERT Train-the-Trainer course conducted by the Arizona Department of Emergency Management.
The town will reserve the right to organize a class into appropriate teams. For example, if a group of citizens from the same neighborhood registers for the program, they will constitute one class.
For more information about the CERT program, visit QueenCreekAZ.gov/CERT or contact Donna Johnson, CERT Team Leader, at 480-358-3358 or at donna.johnson@queencreekaz.gov.
Read more here.
