The latest class of Alexandria’s Community Emergency Response Team is expected to graduate Saturday following a small-scale disaster drill at the city’s fire training academy.
The group, made of volunteers from around the city, is expected to test first aid, fire extinguishing, search and rescue, and triage skills obtained in eight weeks of training with the fire department.
“All the training comes together at the drill,” said Pierre Paret, a member of the Alexandria Citizens Corps Council. “There are simulated fires, and it’s in the same building the fire and rescue personnel use for training.”
Paret said Alexandria’s CERT teams have been around for years, but interest in the program spiked after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Workers now are trained to fill the gaps that might appear when firefighters are responding to a large disaster.
“After 9/11, everyone was more aware of natural disasters and manmade disasters from terrorism,” he said. “There were volunteers at the Pentagon who just showed up. We made an attempt to formalize [volunteering] a bit.”
Paret said the group, while not having to respond to a disaster on the scale of the Pentagon attack, has assisted the fire department in numerous capacities, and also sent teams to deal with the aftermath of hurricanes in the south.
“The idea behind CERT is we’re there if the first responders are overwhelmed,” Paret said.
