Skip Jirrels comment, “In areas where CERT has proven effective, the follow-up training and direct interactions between first responders and CERT folks are prioritized.” corresponds directly with my experience in Sacramento’s CERT program.
CERT’s training is based on the team concept. As some have commented in the article, it would be great to have a CERT team member in every neighborhood, just as it would having a firefighter and an ER doctor. But, just as with firefighters and ER docs, the real effectiveness of CERT comes from working together as a team, ideally under the leadership of public safety professionals.
Hats off to Geoff Peters for building the relationship with Chief Turberville of the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District.
For CERT to be effective elsewhere in the County, I sincerely hope that the effort spinning up at the DEM follows suit by fostering direct and close relationships with fire departments and districts in Sonoma County.
Lastly, something City of Sebastopol might want to check out with God Ridge FD is who is responsible for wildfire prevention and protection for Analy HS and the public elementary and middle schools in your district? Here in Forestville WSCUHSD, Sonoma County Office of Education and Sonoma County Fire District all assert that an obscure CA state agency has primary responsibility for wildfire prevention and protection for the 41 acre El Molino HS campus. It's a disputed issue because the CA State Fire Marshall's office says no, the County has primary responsibility for wildfire prevention and protection for public school campuses. The end result of this unsettled dispute is no wildfire prevention and protection services for the El Molino HS campus, so I don't know if you all have arranged something different for wildfire prevention and protection for the public school campuses located in City of Sebastopol, in the annexation to/consolidation with Gold Ridge FD?
Maybe a minor issue, but one that seems best addressed directly rather than ignored with the risk that your public school campuses may end up with no wildfire prevention and protection services like ours here in Forestville.
P.S. For people unfamiliar with CERT training and CERT activities, which is likely most people cuz CERT died in Sonoma County for unknown reasons after the 2017 fires when fire department consolidation took off ... I recommend looking at the Santa Cruz County FD's CERT web page. Santa Cruz county CERT volunteers have been instrumental in helping evacuate rural areas during approaching wildfires, amongst other things. There's a real need here in Sonoma Coubty for well trained emergency response volunteers -- I'm glad we're beginning again. One concern that the folks in charge might want to address is that current FEMA CERT training removed the emphasis on chain-of-command communications, which was an integral part of my training. That's why LAFD runs it's CERT programs independently from FEMA (or at least did during the pandemic), because LAFD believes that proper chain of command communications are integral to the success of their CERT program and to emergency response in general.
We're just taking the baby beginning steps now for CERT in Sonoma County, but nonetheless I advocate for following the FEMA curriculum and adding a unit on chain of command communications -- super important! I wish my designated fire department practiced and adhered to effective chain of command communications -- it would be helpful and appropriate. One can but hope 🙏
By the way, it's a little challenging for us out here in Forestville Local Responsibility Area (LRA). I've been told we need to give SCFD 5 or 10 years to get up and running and able to meet its responsibilities because it's such a new and rapidly growing department. We do not receive any wildfire prevention or protection services from CalFire like our neighbors here in Forestville do, and SCFD Chief Heine asserts that SCFD has no responsibility for wildfire prevention in SCFD Forestville service territory Local Responsbility Area. He's dead wrong, of course, but it really doesn't make much difference because SCFD doesn't have the capacity to fulfill its mandated responsibilities even if it deigned to recognize them as such.
The upshot is that we're on our own out here in the small LRA portion of Forestville. Knowledgeable local fire professionals have advised me, that given my location (half block from El Molino HS campus) and current SCFD staffing levels, I should not expect any assistance from SCFD during a major wildfire emergency for at least the first 72 hours. We'll, a lot can happen during the first 72 hours of a major wildfire emergency.
I think you folks in Sebastopol are far more fortunate than we are here in Forestville. I certainly hope so! It's likely that your people negotiated a better agreement with Gold Ridge FD than our Forestville FD folks negotiated with SCFD.
Sonoma County Fire District was formed by consolidation Windsor and Rincon Valley FDs after the 2017 fires, and has been expanding . rapidly. It is not a county agency, despite the name. SCFD has some kind of relationship with MedicAmbulance, a family owned ambulance company based in Solano County. SCFD Chief Heine somehow managed to promote MedicAmbulance's low bid for coubty wide emergency medical services, get the contract removed from AMR, and then purchase a fleet of little red ambulances and paint Sonoma County Fire District on them. Weird but true.
The downside for all of us is that MedicAlbulance only employs entry level EMT's and paramedics, so there are not folks with more advanced training who can administer medications and do appropriate medical procedures on emergency medical calls like the AMR folks used to be able to do for us. MedicAmbulance has confirmed this info directly for me.
Such is life -- do keep a close eye on your program administrators to make sure services aren't being quietly downgraded, that's the lesson I learned from this. MedicAmbulance employees aren't certified to give emergency medications like nitroglycerin for heart attack, for example, although they can administered prescribed medication if they know where it is. The advice I got is to put a note on your refrigerator, like where folks post their DNR notices, explaining what emergency medicine you might need and where it's located in your house, if you'd like to have the MedicAmbulance/SCFD paramedics/EMTs administered prescribed medication for you in the event of a medical emergency call at your home.
Just fyi, cuz most people probably haven't investigated the switch from AMR to MedicAmbulance as fully as I did. MedicAmbulance is now county wide, no matter what your fire district is, so probably good for all to know the new limitations and post a note on your fridge if you have prescribed emergency medications at home. Thank you.
Apologies from straying from the CERT training subject. It's all filed under the 'emergency response' subject heading in my mind, so I hope it was ok to bring forth these facts and received pieces of advice in the comments/discussion here.
Fabulous news and article filled with valuable links and details.
I want to re-certify for CERT, since my last complete training was about 15 years ago. Looking forward to more classes in the future - need more advanced notice of dates.
Combining CERT training with our Meet Your Neighbors West County group is a solid 1-2 punch when we meet with disasters and evacuations.
Hurray for CERT training returning to Sonoma County 👍 Thank you for informing your subscribers -- much appreciated. I've been asking about CERT since moving back to Sonoma County 2017. Sonoma County Emergency Management told me a few months ago that they were planning to reintroduce CERT here this year -- hurray! Very pleased to hear that it's happening, amd thank you to all for your good work in bringing back CERT training and informing residents.
I tried, unsuccessfully, to download the pdf. Downloaded several apps suggested in the process, and still could not download the pdf.
I don’t know if it’s my incompetence or a glitch in the system
Skip Jirrels comment, “In areas where CERT has proven effective, the follow-up training and direct interactions between first responders and CERT folks are prioritized.” corresponds directly with my experience in Sacramento’s CERT program.
CERT’s training is based on the team concept. As some have commented in the article, it would be great to have a CERT team member in every neighborhood, just as it would having a firefighter and an ER doctor. But, just as with firefighters and ER docs, the real effectiveness of CERT comes from working together as a team, ideally under the leadership of public safety professionals.
Hats off to Geoff Peters for building the relationship with Chief Turberville of the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District.
For CERT to be effective elsewhere in the County, I sincerely hope that the effort spinning up at the DEM follows suit by fostering direct and close relationships with fire departments and districts in Sonoma County.
Lastly, something City of Sebastopol might want to check out with God Ridge FD is who is responsible for wildfire prevention and protection for Analy HS and the public elementary and middle schools in your district? Here in Forestville WSCUHSD, Sonoma County Office of Education and Sonoma County Fire District all assert that an obscure CA state agency has primary responsibility for wildfire prevention and protection for the 41 acre El Molino HS campus. It's a disputed issue because the CA State Fire Marshall's office says no, the County has primary responsibility for wildfire prevention and protection for public school campuses. The end result of this unsettled dispute is no wildfire prevention and protection services for the El Molino HS campus, so I don't know if you all have arranged something different for wildfire prevention and protection for the public school campuses located in City of Sebastopol, in the annexation to/consolidation with Gold Ridge FD?
Maybe a minor issue, but one that seems best addressed directly rather than ignored with the risk that your public school campuses may end up with no wildfire prevention and protection services like ours here in Forestville.
P.S. For people unfamiliar with CERT training and CERT activities, which is likely most people cuz CERT died in Sonoma County for unknown reasons after the 2017 fires when fire department consolidation took off ... I recommend looking at the Santa Cruz County FD's CERT web page. Santa Cruz county CERT volunteers have been instrumental in helping evacuate rural areas during approaching wildfires, amongst other things. There's a real need here in Sonoma Coubty for well trained emergency response volunteers -- I'm glad we're beginning again. One concern that the folks in charge might want to address is that current FEMA CERT training removed the emphasis on chain-of-command communications, which was an integral part of my training. That's why LAFD runs it's CERT programs independently from FEMA (or at least did during the pandemic), because LAFD believes that proper chain of command communications are integral to the success of their CERT program and to emergency response in general.
We're just taking the baby beginning steps now for CERT in Sonoma County, but nonetheless I advocate for following the FEMA curriculum and adding a unit on chain of command communications -- super important! I wish my designated fire department practiced and adhered to effective chain of command communications -- it would be helpful and appropriate. One can but hope 🙏
By the way, it's a little challenging for us out here in Forestville Local Responsibility Area (LRA). I've been told we need to give SCFD 5 or 10 years to get up and running and able to meet its responsibilities because it's such a new and rapidly growing department. We do not receive any wildfire prevention or protection services from CalFire like our neighbors here in Forestville do, and SCFD Chief Heine asserts that SCFD has no responsibility for wildfire prevention in SCFD Forestville service territory Local Responsbility Area. He's dead wrong, of course, but it really doesn't make much difference because SCFD doesn't have the capacity to fulfill its mandated responsibilities even if it deigned to recognize them as such.
The upshot is that we're on our own out here in the small LRA portion of Forestville. Knowledgeable local fire professionals have advised me, that given my location (half block from El Molino HS campus) and current SCFD staffing levels, I should not expect any assistance from SCFD during a major wildfire emergency for at least the first 72 hours. We'll, a lot can happen during the first 72 hours of a major wildfire emergency.
I think you folks in Sebastopol are far more fortunate than we are here in Forestville. I certainly hope so! It's likely that your people negotiated a better agreement with Gold Ridge FD than our Forestville FD folks negotiated with SCFD.
Sonoma County Fire District was formed by consolidation Windsor and Rincon Valley FDs after the 2017 fires, and has been expanding . rapidly. It is not a county agency, despite the name. SCFD has some kind of relationship with MedicAmbulance, a family owned ambulance company based in Solano County. SCFD Chief Heine somehow managed to promote MedicAmbulance's low bid for coubty wide emergency medical services, get the contract removed from AMR, and then purchase a fleet of little red ambulances and paint Sonoma County Fire District on them. Weird but true.
The downside for all of us is that MedicAlbulance only employs entry level EMT's and paramedics, so there are not folks with more advanced training who can administer medications and do appropriate medical procedures on emergency medical calls like the AMR folks used to be able to do for us. MedicAmbulance has confirmed this info directly for me.
Such is life -- do keep a close eye on your program administrators to make sure services aren't being quietly downgraded, that's the lesson I learned from this. MedicAmbulance employees aren't certified to give emergency medications like nitroglycerin for heart attack, for example, although they can administered prescribed medication if they know where it is. The advice I got is to put a note on your refrigerator, like where folks post their DNR notices, explaining what emergency medicine you might need and where it's located in your house, if you'd like to have the MedicAmbulance/SCFD paramedics/EMTs administered prescribed medication for you in the event of a medical emergency call at your home.
Just fyi, cuz most people probably haven't investigated the switch from AMR to MedicAmbulance as fully as I did. MedicAmbulance is now county wide, no matter what your fire district is, so probably good for all to know the new limitations and post a note on your fridge if you have prescribed emergency medications at home. Thank you.
Apologies from straying from the CERT training subject. It's all filed under the 'emergency response' subject heading in my mind, so I hope it was ok to bring forth these facts and received pieces of advice in the comments/discussion here.
Fabulous news and article filled with valuable links and details.
I want to re-certify for CERT, since my last complete training was about 15 years ago. Looking forward to more classes in the future - need more advanced notice of dates.
Combining CERT training with our Meet Your Neighbors West County group is a solid 1-2 punch when we meet with disasters and evacuations.
I thank you, SEBASTOPOL TIMES for this article.
Hurray for CERT training returning to Sonoma County 👍 Thank you for informing your subscribers -- much appreciated. I've been asking about CERT since moving back to Sonoma County 2017. Sonoma County Emergency Management told me a few months ago that they were planning to reintroduce CERT here this year -- hurray! Very pleased to hear that it's happening, amd thank you to all for your good work in bringing back CERT training and informing residents.