The Community Emergency Response Team concept was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985. The Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 underscored the area-wide threat of a major disaster in California. Further, it confirmed the need for training civilians to meet their immediate needs. As a result, the LAFD created the Disaster Preparedness Division with the purpose of training citizens and private and government employees. The training program makes good sense and furthers the process of citizens understanding their responsibility in preparing for disaster. It also increases their ability to safely help themselves, their family and their neighbors. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recognizes the importance of preparing citizens. The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and the National Fire Academy adopted and expanded the CERT materials believing them applicable to all hazards. The CERT course will benefit any citizen who takes it. This individual will be better prepared to respond to and cope with the aftermath of a disaster. Additionally, if a community wants to supplement its response capability after a disaster, civilians can be recruited and trained as neighborhood, business, and government teams that, in essence, will be auxiliary responders. These groups can provide immediate assistance to victims in their area, organize spontaneous volunteers who have not had the training, and collect disaster intelligence that will assist professional responders with prioritization and allocation of resources following a disaster.

Basic level #1 CERT training is open to anyone who is interested in Life Saving Skills, Disaster Preparedness, Fire Suppression, Cribbing, Light Search & Rescue, Triage, and Head to Toe Assessment. The class is a total of 21 hours that must be completed to receive the FEMA Certificate of graduation. You must be over the age of 18 to get a certificate but any person between the ages of 15 and 17 years of age may take the class with a parent or guardian. There are no restrictions for individuals 18 years and older, and there is no upper age or physical ability limitation. Training is designed to cover the following:

  • Disaster Preparedness
  • Fire Safety
  • Disaster Medical Operations – Triage and Treating Life Threatening Injuries
  • Disaster Medical Operations – Assessment, Treatment, and Hygiene
  • Light Search and Rescue
  • Team Organization
  • Disaster Psychology
  • Terrorism and CERT
  • Final Exercise
  • Sessions require about 21 hours to complete

CERT Training

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department are providing CERT Training Courses. Please watch our calendar for upcoming classes.

Maintaining Involvement

For 2010 we would like to announce a new Antelope Valley CERT. It is a collaboration of the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The Fire Department has increased the frequency of their CERT classes in the Antelope Valley. The Sheriff’s Department has decided to focus its efforts on the maintenance of the program. What this means is we will be forming area Teams with area Team Captains for CERT members to report to. Each Team Captain will have quarterly meetings for their members and keep them involved in CERT activities.

The Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department will bring you 3-4 refreshers per year. Those will involve several different exercises and team activities.
We will be handling two different categories of CERT members. 1) a mail out only list where you will only receive CERT updates and Refresher dates and/or 2) a Call out list, where you will be notified if CERT has been requested to assist in a major disaster.
To maintain your active status on the Call-out list, you must complete 24 hours of CERT refresher training/team activities per year. If you fail to complete the necessary hours, you will be removed off the Call-out list until you complete the required hours. Your team leaders will be doing training and exercises. Those hours do count towards your annual 24 hours. Of those 24 hours, 16 must be CERT Refreshers. (2 per year)
A reason we are so excited about this program is that when CERT is needed in a disaster, they are freshly educated and current on all activities. They will know what needs to be done. They have been working with teams and have confidence in a disaster situation.
We will continue to bring you new areas of interest and new skills, for example, traffic direction, sandbagging, swift water preparedness, Incident Command System and much more.

We are very excited about the direction CERT is moving. It is a positive direction forward and a step to make Antelope Valley CERT recognized and considered a valued asset with Cities of Palmdale and Lancaster and local communities. We are looking at the program to begin January 2010. Please check our website from time to time for updates on new classes, meetings and Refreshers.
Thank you all for the work you have done and for volunteering for such a worthy cause.

In May 2010 we have started a new concept here specifically for the Antelope Valley. It is the AVCERT Off Road Team. Our sole purpose, after a disaster strikes, is to get to those people on back roads, canyons, mountains, where large first responder vehicles may have a difficult time accessing. Acton, Aqua Dulce, Lake Hughes, Three Points, Green Valley are just some of the communities with this type of terrain.  Other tasks of the AV CERT Off Road Team are to help with emergency communications by placing or facilitating repeaters or cross band systems on high mountains. Other tasks would be to transport nurses/doctors/deputies to their facility in a snow storm (example, the Acton Hwy 14 snow closure of 2008).

AV CERT is NOT a first responder team. We train and organize to assist Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles County Fire Department in the event of a large disaster.

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