Thursday, the Harrison County CERT program completed Day 2 of a three-day training course at Bridgeport Fire Department.
Twenty new volunteers are taking part in the series which covers a variety of topics applicable to Certified Emergency Response Technicians.
Fire Captain Phil Hart is teaching fire safety, Steve Brown is speaking about disaster and medical operations and Police Officer Shaun Fleming is teaching search and rescue. On Thursday, CERT Director Ray Shaw enlightened the group about incident command protocol.
“He taught us to speak the same language which professional first responders use in emergency and disaster situations,” said CERT team member Amy Romano, who is coordinating the training session. “He told us exactly who is in charge, who to follow orders from and how to set up teams so there is no confusion.”
Romano, who is teaching a class on psychology, is among seven GFWC Junior Woman’s Club of Bridgeport members taking the class. Also included are 14 city employees.
“It’s really a good cross-section of people,” Shaw said. “Once trained, they will be able to assist in situations like the derecho we had a couple years ago. We needed more manpower.”
CERT operates under LEPC –local emergency planning commission, a program of CORE, a federal program implemented in 2001 by Pres. George W. Bush following the 9-11 terrorist attack.
In Harrison County, CERT was introduced in 2002, but wasn’t significant until 2006, when Shaw took the reins.
“It was kind of floundering with about 40 people, but they never did any drills or anything and people lost interest,” he said.
The program was built upon, initially by calling in individuals from area churches. Others from throughout the county followed suit and got on board.
After this class has completed training, Harrison County CERT will be 166 members strong, more than half of the members from the Bridgeport area.
The unit is called into action in various situations.
“We’ve been called out three times by the City of Bridgeport for flooding. At that time, we went hose to house along Water Street and also did traffic control. We’ve also gone out several times for 5K races, setting up first aid, etc.”
Harrison County CERT was also utilized to administer immunizations during a recent pandemic and is ready to launch into action in a variety of other situations.
“We have a 25-bed remote hostel trailer that can be used as an alternative care site and we are also trained to set up decontamination units to help with HAZMAT incidents.”
Above photos were taken at this week’s training (Wednesday and Thursday) by Laura Pysz, assistant director of emergency management for the City of Bridgeport. The training series concludes Tuesday, March 11.
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