Community Emergency Response Teams Train for Disaster

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes the Bay Area, shaking the earth for at least 45 seconds.

There's an unknown number of injured or dead in multiple buildings. Small fires burn nearby.

It's a frightening scenario.

But one that 19 trainees of the local Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) program had to face during a drill on April 30.

The mock disaster drill was the culmination of a five- week training course that teaches residents about basic disaster preparedness, hazardous materials awareness, disaster medicine and search & rescue.

"It's the last class where CERT students will bring together all their learned skills to respond to a mock earthquake drill," said Genevieve Pastor-Cohen, emergency preparedness manager for the fire department.

The two hour-drill, the first of its kind as a joint effort between the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department and the  training program, was a big production.

More than 40 volunteers were dispersed inside three dark buildings. A car was set on fire.

"It's very chaotic," Larry Valenzin, a Pleasanton resident and one of the students, described the scene.

Valenzin was among those who entered one of the "damaged" buildings to identify and assess how many people needed help.

At the beginning of the drill, students broke up into teams of two to search structures for the wounded. The first team of students to enter a building  had to find, assess and count people. A second team came in to help those assists those who are mobile to a temporary medical station.

"When we got into that dark building, it's just overwhelming," Valenzin said. "It's pretty intense."

The mock drill mirrored what would happen in a real emergency situation, where community response teams would the first to respond in stricken neighborhoods, Pastor-Cohen said.

As a disaster "escalates," local fire fighters can come into the scene to resume rescue and emergency operations. The community response teams would then hand off operations to the fire department.

"It will enable the [fire department] to utilize CERTs as a support team in such an event," Pastor-Cohen said.

Students of the program said they took the class because they know an earthquake will happen in the Bay Area. Valenzin said the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year encouraged him to learn more about disaster preparedness.

"I know an earthquake will be coming," he said. "We just want to be prepared."

To learn more about the training program, visit the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department website.