2003 Spring Refresher
Grant High School
Valley Glen
04/26/2003
Next, this was my second refresher, and I enjoyed the elements of surprise involving the situations that we dealt with; therefore, making it more realistic. Below are some of the examples during the following exercises:
Search & Rescue: The experience of having the room being dark, and the addition of the stones on the floor provided an atmosphere of a true obstacle course when having to look for injured persons. In addition the physical setup of the room with additional levels, and folding chairs offered a challenge for making sure that people where realistic in taking their time to be safe during the search.
Fire Hose: The explanation and the privilege of handling the fire hose presented a different sense of respect for the service that the LAFD provides. It was as well a thrill to handle all that power.
In addition, I enjoyed the exposure to the other services of the LAFD - the rescue helicopter, HAZMAT team, and the fire truck. The above activities including lifting and medical also gave me a better perspective of what areas I need to improve on for myself, and allowed me to know where my strengths were. The whole day was enlightening and was a positive and realistic approach to handling emergency and disaster situations.
There is one thing that I thought might have enhanced the day. Since CERT is about community teams working together I think that if the battalions meet at the beginning of the refresher day instead of the end of the day it would have been more beneficial. This would allow people to see people in their communities. Just asking people to sit in a labeled battalion area before the program starts could do this. Also their needs to be a way to be able to identify the battalions for everyone on site, since there might be people who don't know what battalion they belong to.
L. Gale Mitchell
