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	USING COMMUNITY RESPONSE TEAMS IN SCHOOLS...Janet Gibbons, Davis County School District After a major earthquake or other emergency, fire, police, and other emergency response agencies may be overburdened and may not be able to reach your community immediately. District employees may have to take initial emergency response action and fend for themselves for at least 72 hours.
Past earthquakes have shown that the first rescuers on scene are usually volunteers. Untrained volunteers can endanger their own lives, as well as the lives of those individuals they are trying to assist. The idea of training volunteers from the community to assist emergency services personnel during large-scale natural disasters began in Los Angeles in 1985 with studies of earthquake preparedness and response. The Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) developed a pilot program to train multi-functional volunteer response teams to perform basic fire suppression, light search and rescue, and first aid. The first team of 30 neighborhood watch organization leaders that completed training in early 1986 demonstrated that the concept was viable. The purpose of the Community Response Team program is to improve, through training, community self-reliance and survival ability in the event of a large natural disaster. The earthquake scenario is used because recent California history has proven that emergency resources will be depleted to the extent that some individuals or neighborhoods will need to rely on themselves within the first 24 to 48 hours. Training consists of seven sessions spread out over seven weeks for a total of 21 hours of instruction. Classes cover personal and family preparedness, non-structural hazard mitigation, the Incident Command System, size-up, disaster psychology, hazardous-materials identification, fire suppression, search and rescue, recognizing and treating life-threatening emergencies, and a simulated exercise. Select groups of volunteers are trained and will form teams capable of taking care of basic self-help emergency functions until help can arrive.
	Hurricane Hugo, the flooding of the Mississippi River, the San Francisco and Northridge earthquakes recently have demonstrated the devastating potential for broad-based destruction that natural disaster can inflict on mankind. Prudent risk management does not allow the fire service to maintain personnel and resources on a full-time basis to cope with such large-scale disasters.
WE NEED TO RELY ON OUR OWN RESOURCES. Studies have shown that most people are not killed by an earthquake. They are usually killed by things falling on them, fires, poisonous fumes, or flooding. Things that are normally available to you, (telephones, utilities, and roads), will be damaged in an earthquake. The Whittier Narrows earthquake was a 5.9. It resulted in only 3 deaths, but within 40 minutes, all the ambulances were taken, and half the fire engines were out fighting fires! You may not be able to get help for 72 or more hours. Preparing employees to function on their own is imperative. Utah was one of the first states in the nation, outside of California, to recognize the value of the Community Emergency Response Team Program to its citizens. CERT is not only an outstanding vehicle to enable a population to take care of themselves in the immediate hours following a major disaster, but also a program that would bridge the gap between the lay public and the emergency management community. Davis School District was the first school district in Utah to provide this type of training for their personnel as an on-going in service program. For those taking CERT training, 1 1/2 semester credit hours of in service credit will be granted on the completion of this course. Six people trained from each elementary and special schools, twelve people trained from each of the junior and senior high schools, and employees from other buildings within the District, should assemble enough skilled people to meet the needs of the safety of student and employee populations. As employees train to be CERT members, not only will safety needs be met at the schools, but also those of the communities. When the earthquake or other disaster hits, school may not be in session. If this were to happen, trained CERT members will be available to help in their community. CERT members will be receiving the same training that is being provided throughout the county. All efforts are coordinated through the Davis County CERT Association. The Association brings together the primary responders (sheriff, police, and fire) from all municipalities within the County.

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