Big Bear Lake, California – WHAT IS CERT?   The objective of the Big Bear Valley Community Emergency Response Team or BBV-CERT is to provide public education, training and opportunities for volunteers to support community and family safety.  To educate citizens to be better prepared to take care of themselves, family, friends and neighbors in the event of a disaster of any type until emergency responders can arrive.

The next CERT class is scheduled for the week of October 17^th thru October 21^th from 5:45 pm to 9:45 pm at the Paradise Training Center located at 417 Grenfal in Big Bear City (Corner of Grenfal and Paradise).  There is no fee to attend this 20 Hour CERT training class.   There is a pre-requisite for this basic CERT training course, individuals need to complete the FEMA ICS-100 and ICS-700 training series by going to http://training.fema.gov.is/   Those wanting to attend this CERT class must be at least 18 years old.

CERT team members are trained in disaster preparedness with basic disaster response skills such as light search and rescue, disaster medical operations, fire safety, First Aid, CPR, and much more.  Our CERT team members can assess structure safety after a disaster, whereas they can ask you to remain outside your home because of safety concerns.  CERT team members can also do basic medical assessment and get quicker medical treatment from the triage units that will be set up.  This is Big Bear Valley’s way of making sure you, and our community is safe and gets medical evaluation and basic lifesaving treatment.

Those wishing to attend the upcoming 20-hour CERT training can register by emailing Kristin Saukel, CERT President, at k.saukel@verizon.net.  Check out the Big Bear Valley CERT website at www.bbvcert.org.