Volunteers receive emergency training

As fires were extinguished, medical treatment assessed and searching and rescuing concluded, teams of volunteers assembled to complete the training for their disaster drill.

These are a few of the scenarios the city’s Community Emergency Response Team conducted in November. CERT is a group of certified volunteers who train in helping first responders in case the city faces a major disaster.

Glennwilde resident and volunteer Jange Gagliano said she applied to become a member to help her community and others.

“I recommend it to anybody, even if it’s just for a family,” she said. “They’ll know what to do for their neighbors. It’s great.”

Deputy Fire Marshal Eddie Rodriguez oversees the program and is in charge of directing the volunteers on where to go to help during an emergency. Volunteer Jim Fuller is the local CERT coordinator and trains volunteers according to Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations.

Volunteers must study, learn and practice successfully for 20 hours to apply for certification. They attended six class sessions, one drill and completed a final exam. The courses were held at Fire Station 575, where fire and emergency response members helped volunteers dig deeper in their training.

Once certified, CERT members continue training with online independent study courses and continuing education.

Volunteers are not required to become CERT members. They can keep the knowledge they learn for their own use, Rodriguez said.

“We put them into our emergency action plan,” Rodriguez said. “The city has an emergency plan in the event there’s a disaster in Maricopa, a flood, an earthquake or a train wreck derailment.”

CERT volunteers are a supplemental resource.

“Anything that we cannot do because we’re depleted, these guys do. So they get into search and rescue, extinguishing fires and medical stuff,” Rodriguez said.

Community members from all walks of life participated, including retirees, teachers and mothers.

Volunteers also help the city in such areas as crowd control and fireworks management.

“There’s a place in CERT for everybody,” Fuller said. “If they’ve got some sort of limitation physically or something like that, there’s a job for them. It’s open to everybody.”

Rancho El Dorado resident and volunteer Aki Stant said he was impressed by the trainers who gave up their time and resources to help the city and its residents.

“They’re not looking for pay. They’re not looking for recognition,” Stant said. “They’re just looking to do something good in the community. That’s what citizenship is all about.”