The UCSF Police Department and the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team) training program have joined forces to provide disaster training for members of the campus community.
The course is free and sign-ups are now in progress for the UCSF December training session that includes two consecutive Mondays: Dec. 11, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Dec. 18 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Both sessions will be conducted at UCSF Parnassus campus, Health Sciences West building, 513 Parnassus Ave., Room 303.
The NERT program is an all-risk, all-hazard training program for the general community. This valuable course, funded in part by grants from the US Department of Homeland Security, is designed to help prepare and protect individuals, their families and their neighbors in an emergency situation.
"UCSF's ability to recover from a disaster will be greatly enhanced as the number of staff, faculty and students who are prepared to help themselves and others increases," said UCSF Police Chief Pamela Roskowski.
Recently, University Advancement and Planning staff underwent a mandatory NERT training program at the Laurel Heights campus. Not only did participants in the six-week training program learn valuable lessons on how to protect themselves, their families and immediate neighbors in the event of a disaster, they also heard candid stories about how the SFFD is working to protect people from man-made, natural or biological disasters.
Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, however, SFFD firefighters convey the useful information in a light-hearted way, showing their sense of humor, often used as a coping mechanism for a tough job.
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Firefighter Ed Chu teaches how to extricate a trapped victim as part of the Neigborhood Emergency Response Team training program at Laurel Heights. |
"If you see us running, you better start running," said firefighter Denise Newman, a San Francisco native.
NERT participants heard that in the event of a major disaster, the SFFD will be hard-pressed to cover the 49-square-mile city, and will depend on volunteer citizens and NERT trainees to help them in rescue and response efforts. San Francisco currently has 41 firehouses, with about 350 firefighters and paramedics on duty on any given day. While the total SFFD staff numbers around 1,800, only half of firefighters live in San Francisco, thereby reducing their immediate availability in a disaster.
While no one knows when the next disaster will occur, the US Geological Survey predicts that there is a 67 percent chance of a major earthquake occurring in the Bay Area within the next two decades.
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Julie Bernstein, senior web developer for Public Affairs, graduates from the NERT training program. |
"We're overdue for an earthquake," said Ed Chu, an SFFD firefighter for 13 years and a NERT program trainer. "We're waiting for the next big one of 8.0 or more. It's not a matter of if it's going to happen; it's a matter of when it's going to happen."
Modeled after a similar program in Los Angeles after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, SFFD's NERT program has trained some 15,000 citizens "to do the most good for the most people."
In the NERT training, participants learn to:
• put out small fires and address utility issues
• provide basic first aid
• search for and rescue victims safely
• organize themselves and spontaneous volunteers to be effective, and
• collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts.
This training is open to all UCSF employees, but space is limited.
Register now online, call 415/970-2024, or
email.
Photos/Lisa Cisneros
