1999 Emergency Preparedness Fair
Reported by Richard Wood
The 1999
Emergency Preparedness Fair, held April 16, 17 and 18, was very educational for both the first-time visitors and participants and seasoned Disaster Workers such as ourselves. Every year the Fair
evolves, and no two years are ever the same, it seems. The Los Angeles Community Emergency Response Team was there of course. Our awning was in the midst of the Los Angeles Fire Department area. We
had Basic Training and Battalion Refresher schedules available for the public and the CERT members who came by.
This year, CERT volunteers participated in School Day on Friday, the 16th. About 2,500 students from the Los Angeles Unified School District attended. That is up a bit from last year, when
about 1,000 students attended. Many of the City agencies and departments had demonstrations and presentations for the children. Each volunteer was assigned to a bus, and acted as guide and
schedule-keeper for the group from arrival at the Fair until they departed. This group is learning about temporary and permanent signs and directions from the Los Angeles Department of
Transportation.
No Fair would
be complete without some real live exciting demonstrations. In this picture it doesn't look like it's all that much of a jump, but it is. The platform in this picture is about 30 feet above the
asphalt. It is a long ways down when you are standing on the platform. There are two fans which inflate the bag to provide cushioning for the one jumping. I think I would need a considerable amount
of fire at my back to get me to jump into this bag, but the firefighters seemed to have no problem with it at all.
No
public services presentation package for school children would be complete without some up-close and personal interaction with Fire Department and Police Department representatives. Sparky the Fire
Dog told the youngsters about fire safety and what to do if a fire happens where they are. Police representatives taught the young participants how to remain safe during an emergency as well as
every day on their way to and from school and at the playground and street.
There were many antique pieces of apparatus on display. This is a horse-drawn steam-driven pump. Around the turn of the century these were quite the state-of-the-art firefighting machine. By
the time the horses had been harnessed and the rig pulled to the fire, the steam pressure would be up to drive the pump. This certainly was an improvement on the bucket brigade concept, and was a
stepping stone to some of the more recent innovations in 'rolling stock'.
One of the newest concepts in fire equipment is the small, specialized units like this Humvee-based fire truck. It doesn't look like a fire truck at first glance, but it is. Smaller units like
this can get into places faster than the larger units, which may stop a small event from becoming much larger. This kind of 4-wheel drive unit seems ideal for hillside areas and the undeveloped
mountain regions within the area which are difficult to access but are frighteningly close by when they are ablaze.
We CERT folk
don't have a Humvee, but we seem to have an official genuine red-and-white fire department van with our CERT logo and the training information phone number. The Disaster Preparedness Unit is
continuing to conduct training sessions around the city. Keep a link to our Basic Training Schedule for those in your neighborhood who would like to join our Team. CERT members are a part of the
emergency and disaster response structure of the Los Angeles Fire Department, and with over 20,000 of us trained as of Spring 1999, we are a significant asset to our communities, to the LAFD, and
to the City of Los Angeles.
