'X' MARKS THE SPOT: CERT TRAINING, PART III

This is Part III of a series of articles about the Murrieta Fire Department’s CERT Training Class held March 9 through 11, 2012 at the main fire station on Juniper Street.

I abruptly ended the last article, with several acronyms, one of which was a series of numbers: 35-2-1.  As it turns out, those numbers are the combo to my locker at the gym. I meant to convey the mnemonic for conducting a rapid assessment of the injured during triage: "30-2-can do." 

A victim is tagged as ‘immediate’ when difficulty breathing is apparent at a rate greater than 30 per minute. Moderately pinching a fingertip momentarily displaces the capillary blood flow (capillary refill). The fingertip should quickly return to a healthy, pink color within two (2) seconds. If it takes longer, there’s an oxygenation problem, since blood carries oxygen to all parts of the body.

When anyone becomes short on oxygen for any reason, anxiety and disorientation follow. It becomes difficult to answer simple questions such as the time, a name (person); the location (place), and what happened (purpose). Time, person, place, purpose (TPPP). It’s also difficult to obey simple commands, like, ‘open your eyes’, ‘squeeze my fingers’ and many others used as a tool to assess a patient’s level of consciousness.

Suffice it to say though conscious I may be, even I have a tad bit of trouble remembering things, especially when I’m upset. This is why medical professionals continually ask the same, silly questions, over and over, from the time care is initiated to the time of discharge home.  If Mr. Smith was awake and alert, oriented to TPPP at noon, say within the confines of the emergency room, then at 12:30, he thinks he’s fishing in the high seas of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp, well, anyone can figure out that something’s awry with Mr. Smith.

So, why is this information important? It’s not, in the grand scheme of day-to-day living. If you’ll remember some of the acronyms I mentioned in CERT Training, Part II, keep it simple, silly (KISS) ranked No. 1 for good reason: solving anything – you fill in the blank –begins with the basics.

I’m purposefully oversimplifying my experience with the intricate medical and rescue topics taught in the three-day, 19-hour, CERT class hosted by MFD in early March. My intent was to grab the quick overview shared by Capt. Eric Ballard on the Friday evening preceding the practical training over the weekend.

I decided to partake when I noticed MFD’s preparation, the depth of the topics to be presented and by each student’s sincerity with learning from the best of MFD’s best: Fire Inspector Dan Wilson who oversees the CERT program; Firefighter/Paramedic (FF/PM) Mike Macalinao; FF/PM Matt Bentley; FF/PM Chris Brann; FF/PM Brandon Roach in tandem with the noble cadre of MFD Explorers, Post 630.

As well, Battalion Chief (BC) Steve Kean, a 25-year veteran of the MFD, shared his first-hand experience of being called to task along the decimated coastline of Mississippi in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, (August, 2005). The photos appearing in this article were taken from the web.

“I was assigned as a member of a management team to help with logistics. Our base camp was located as the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi serving as a supply distribution hub. Helicopters, aircraft and thousands of big rigs were just sitting, filled with food and supplies to take to cities like Biloxi. The problem was that many towns vanished under thirty feet water, so gaining access was impossible for a time,” said Kean, showing a slide show of photos where homes had been declared as searched, indicated by a highly visible, spray-painted ‘X’  on piles of debris where homes and buildings once stood.

Kean reiterated the importance of rescuing the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time while ensuring our own safety. In conducting light search and rescue in stable structures, we were training to assess the damage, to evacuate survivors, to secure the building perimeter and to warn others of the danger in entering the building.

Hence, a great, big ‘X’ marks the spot where information is conveyed in the quadrants. For example: date; time; number of victims rescued; agency and the number of people missing inside the structure. I know this sounds so…organized and calm. Indeed. Pandemonium can be more dangerous than the catastrophic event. We were each issued a big, yellow, contractor’s crayon placed in our forest, green backpack for that purpose.  

Mitigating any interim or disaster-related danger in your microcosm is really the purpose of the class.  KISS, remember? In the BIG picture, Murrieta’s General Plan is posted on the city’s website: www.murrieta.org. The detailed, Safety Elements in Section 12 spells out the history of local flooding and the potential for major earthquakes, as California is furrowed with deep, protracted, trembling fault lines.

“MFD remains in a state of disaster preparedness on a local, statewide and national level,” said Dan Wilson, MFD’s CERT coordinator. “For this class, we try to focus on community preparation, safety and resources emphasizing that in a disaster, those things begin at home,” he said. 

“We want the CERT students to get the hands-on training given the scenarios. We want them to get a feel for their role in the community in the face of disaster.  As instructors, we see shy students turn into leaders. We see the young students use their energy and strength for physical tasks. We listen to those involved in their residential community or workplace emergency committees express concern for their neighbors and coworkers,” he said. “On the last day of training, we see them all working together in the mock disaster. It makes me proud to know they’re doing the very best they can under trying conditions. That’s all anyone can ask.”

Before the class got started with the light search and rescue drill, we had the opportunity to douse flames with a fire extinguisher. Truth be told, I’ve never used an extinguisher before, not even in my firefighting career. A pump canister, a one-inch, booster line, various-sized hose lines, 1,000 gallon-per-minute monitors, ladder pipes, but never, ever a KISS, fire extinguisher. 

"A piece of cake," said Pam Knudsen, director of admissions for Calvary Chapel School. So let's PASS it on: Pull, Aim, Squeeze and Sweep and talk about fire extinguishers for a minute. Do you have one or two in your home? In your car? RV? Boat? Workplace? Do you know how to use one? Hey, I’m just askin’.

I asked George, the manikin stuffed under a concrete slab, if he knew his name. I thought I heard him mumble an expletive as our team broke out the cribbing and the collective muscle. We each took turns using different tools of choice under the tutelage of Kean, Brann, Bentley and Macalinao. Marvin Knudsen used the crowbar for leverage. Cindy Ungeheier fared well with placing cribbing under the slightly lifted rock. Isaiah Vallejo and Francisco Dominguez pulled George to safety. We rotated duties. Then we took a lunch break as we pondered all that we had learned as we discussed the timed, drill session to be staged at the Murrieta Community Center after we finished eating. To be continued...