Fire Safety Month: CERT | Home/Kitchen Fire Safety and Plan Your Escape

Fire Safety Month: Home/Kitchen Fire Safety and Plan Your Escape
Don't get caught in an emergency with no idea what to do! This is a workshop from The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).  Learn steps you can take to make your home and kitchen safe; Build a home fire escape plan, one of the most important parts of fire safety. Draw a blueprint of your home, mark two ways out of every room, and use this checklist to make a plan.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training curriculum became part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1993, and FEMA makes it available to communities across the United States and internationally. CERT’s origins, however, began in 1985 in the city of Los Angeles. Several Los Angeles fire officials traveled to Japan to how they respond to the thousands of earthquakes the country faces each year.  The U.S visitors learned that the communities played an important role in both the response and recovery phases of post-disaster efforts. When the 8.1 Mexico City Earthquake struck later that same year, Los Angeles fire officials saw how people in the impacted communities became first responders to immediately help free trapped victims. From these two experiences, the Los Angeles Fire Department created the first CERT pilot program.

CERT came to San Diego after the devastating Cedar Fire of October 2003. City leadership sought ways to improve community preparedness and resiliency, and in April 2004, San Diego City Council passed a resolution that provided CERT training free of charge to our community. CERT San Diego’s graduated its first academy later that year, welcoming more than 25 members. Over the past 20 years, San Diego City has experienced growth, change, success, and challenges, and continue to evolve. Likewise, CERT nationally and in San Diego has grown and evolved.