The Apple Valley Fire Protection District and the Town of Apple Valley offers several CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) courses for Apple Valley residents. CERT is a nationwide program designed to teach residents how to take care of their families, friends, and neighbors during a disaster.

Following a major disaster – natural or man made – emergency resources will be quickly depleted. CERT graduates will know how to best care for themselves, their loved ones, and will extend that knowledge into their neighborhoods and the community.

CERT participants will attend a 20 hour program learning about major emergency preparedness topics.

1. Disaster Preparedness: How to prepare for disasters most prone to our area, how to minimize potential hazards and tips for assembling a survival kit.

2. Fire Safety: A lesson on fire safety for your home as well as hands on training using fire extinguishers..

3.Emergency First Aid: How to recognize and treat the life-threatening conditions of airway obstruction, bleeding, and shock.

4. Triage/Treatment areas: How to establish and conduct triage (sorting) applications.

5. Terrorism Awareness: Learn how to be more aware and alert of surroundings. Know what to do if ever affected by a hazardous material situation. If you see something say something! 

6. Light Search and Rescue: Learn how to size up a situation for search and rescue; how to search systematically and safely; and hands-on practice using safe techniques for lifting, leveraging, and cribbing, a technique for removing a trapped person.

7. Disaster Psychology: A lesson in understanding the natural psychological and physiological progression victims and rescuers experience during a disaster.

8. Team Organization: A teamwork approach is examined and applied so that response is as efficient as possible. Learn when and how CERT members respond to an emergency.

After the classroom instruction on the last day, the CERT members participated in a practical simulation of an earthquake scenario, performing search and rescue, triaging, and first aid. After evaluating the training one graduate said, “I now feel more secure with myself in the event of an emergency.”