Registration is now open for a free emergency response training geared toward Longmont residents.
The Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, basic training teaches community members how to prepared for emergencies. The program has been around in Longmont for nearly a decade, prompted by the 2013 floods.
Large scale disasters, whether a flood, tornado or hurricane, can restrict and overwhelm emergency responders or even cut off communities from outside support. The purpose of CERT classes is to help members of the community learn how to take care of themselves and help others until emergency responders can arrive.
“It’s a wide scope of things that would be useful after a disaster,” Emergency Management Coordinator Kevin Esmail said of the classes’ content.
The course covers basic fire safety and fire suppression, like how to turn off gas in case of a disaster and teaches people to use a fire extinguisher. It touches on basic medical lessons, disaster psychology, terrorism response and search and rescue.
“We also teach one of the most important things about it, which is how to organize,” Esmail said. “We give them an idea of the incident command system and how to assign some different roles for operations, logistics, planning and administration. Everything we’re teaching them to do is, we say, being the first responder not the second victim.”
The course emphasizes safety, ensuring that people think before acting to allow themselves to size up a situation and make the best decisions for everyone’s safety.
“A lot of different skills that probably people will never have to use, but if there was a big disaster — large earthquake, large tornado, big wind storms, things like that — can be really useful for people to just organize with their families and neighbors to start making some good decisions and help each other out,” Esmail said.
Esmail said the course is for anybody over 18, but he encourages bringing others to the classes if possible.
“We really encourage people to take the class with friends and neighbors so it’s not them trying to teach their friends and neighbors during a disaster,” he said.
Between 150 and 200 people have taken the Longmont classes since they began with courses typically scheduled twice a year. Esmail said the city is hoping to continue attracting more people and grow the program.
The classes have been valuable in connecting emergency preparedness with the community those plans are for, according to Esmail.
“It has to be planning with the whole community,” he said. “So making the people in Longmont part of that plan introduces them to those public safety and city organizations. This is kind of what helps connect the city and the actual services in the city during a disaster to the actual community. Really, that planning with the whole community is one of the biggest draws for us.”
The next CERT course will entail three eight hour classes on Sept. 10, 17 and 24. The training is free and geared toward people who live or work in Longmont. Learn more or register here.
