The SeaTac and Burien Fire and Police Departments will partner to offer a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training session beginning March 15.
Classes will be held Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m. for eight weeks at Burien/Normandy Park Fire Station No. 28, 15100 Eighth Ave. S.W.
Burien Police Community Service Officer Nicki Maraulja said the program is designed to train a volunteer citizen corps to promote a partnership between emergency services and the people they serve.
Emergency personnel, utilizing a Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) curriculum, instruct neighborhood residents, members of community organizations and employees in the workplace in basic disaster preparation and response skills.
Community Emergency Response Team members are then integrated into the emergency response capability for their area.
Maraulja noted that in a major disaster, local emergency responders will be overwhelmed.
Citizens who receive this training can make a crucial difference and prevent a disaster from turning into a tragedy, she said.
Events like this winter's wind and snow storms and the February 2001 Nisqually earthquake in Western Washington, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and Hurricane Katrina are motivating factors behind the CERT program, Maraulja said.
Classes will include disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations with a focus on triage and treating life-threatening injuries, assessment, treatment and hygiene in disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster psychology, and terrorism and CERT.
A mass casualty exercise will be held April 28.
CERT is open to anyone who lives or works in the SeaTac, Burien or North Highline.
There are a limited number of spaces for each class, so interested persons are encouraged to register as soon as possible.
To register, contact SeaTac Community Service Officer Jessica Gilleland at 206-973-4917.
A minimal fee will be charged for tools supplied to students to enable them to build their own emergency response kit.
