Gilroy Community Emergency Response Team

Course Overview

The CERT Basic Training Course is delivered in Gilroy by a team of first responders, and other qualified volunteers. 

​

• Disaster Preparedness: Addresses hazards specific to the community. Materials cover actions that participants and their families take before, during and after a disaster as well as an overview of CERT and local laws governing volunteers.

• Fire Suppression: Covers fire chemistry, hazardous materials, fire hazards and fire suppression strategies. However, the thrust of this session is the safe use of fire extinguishers, controlling utilities and extinguishing a small fire.

• Disaster Medical Operations Part I: Participants practice diagnosing and treating airway obstruction, bleeding and shock by using simple triage and rapid treatment techniques.

• Disaster Medical Operations Part II: Covers evaluating patients by doing a head to toe assessment, establishing a medical treatment area and performing basic first aid.

• Light Search and Rescue Operations: Participants learn about search and rescue planning, size-up, search techniques, rescue techniques and rescuer safety.

• CERT Organization: How to organize and deploy CERT resources according to CERT organizational principles. How to protect your own safety and your buddy's during search and rescue. Strategies for documenting situation and resource status. 

• Disaster Psychology: CERT participants, trained to support the first responders during a disaster, will be challenged in many ways during and after response operations. This class gives an overview of stress reactions and strategies for dealing with people under stress during a disaster, including the needs of disaster workers themselves.

• CERT and Terrorism: Covers the definition of terrorism and terrorist goals, how terrorists choose targets, potential terrorist weapons, how to identify a potential attack, preparing at home and work and CERT protocols for terrorist incidents and protective action afterwards.

• Course Review and Disaster Simulation: Participants review and practice the skills that they have learned during the previous six sessions in a disaster activity.