Community Emergency Response Team Trains On Campus

An ounce of preparedness is worth a pound of cure. That's the philosophy municipalities have adopted in recent years by training Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), groups of individuals prepared to supplement emergency responders after a disaster.

Now, Boston College has followed suit.

Last Sunday, 16 members of the BC community, students as well as faculty, completed a 20-hour course that took place during the month of October to become members of the Campus-Community Emergency Response Team (C-CERT). Participants learned skills such as triage, first aid, light search and rescue, fire extinguisher use, psychological first aid, hazard recognition, and damage assessment for use in an emergency situation. The C-CERT course was delivered by a team of first responders who have the requisite knowledge and skills to instruct the sessions. Graduates of BC's third C-CERT class since the program's start in summer 2009 join the other BC C-CERT program graduates, now almost 60 strong in total, to respond to major emergency incidents on campus and in the surrounding community.

The C-CERT program is rooted in the logic that following a major disaster, first responders will be unable to meet the demand for services, leaving individuals to rely on each other to meet their immediate life-saving and life-sustaining needs. C-CERT volunteers are trained and equipped to respond in the event of such demand on campus or in the surrounding community.

"The BC C-CERT program is a great way for people to learn about disaster preparedness, learn live-saving skills and be prepared to assist the BC community," said John Tommaney, director of emergency management. "The skills our students learn during the C-CERT program are transferable with any CERT program across the United States because it is the same core curriculum. This means students who are involved with CERT at BC could become involved with a CERT program in the community they live in at home. It also gives the University a ready-trained resource of people who could help out in an emergency when the rest of our and the surrounding public safety resources are fully engaged."

"Most don't realize that if there were a significant disaster in the community, resources may be stretched," said Chris Faherty, president of Eagle EMS. "While we have BCPD and Eagle EMS EMTs to render assistance, C-CERT volunteers are an asset to BC in an emergency as well. They are able to provide initial assistance to the campus and local area when professional emergency response services are overwhelmed."

The C-CERT training culminated in a joint disaster exercise held in Alumni Stadium last Sunday with members of Eagle EMS's Disaster Response Teams.

"The disaster simulation is probably the highlight of the program because students get to experience first hand how all of their training comes together under a somewhat realistic emergency, including screaming, injured people, hazards such as darkened hallways strewn with debris, and the excitement of being a part of team of people helping people," Tommaney said.

The Office of Emergency Management is planning to host another C-CERT course during the spring semester due to high demand for the fall course. The office aims to train approximately 50 people per academic year to be C-CERT volunteers. It also offers continuing education programs for current C-CERT volunteers.

BC is currently one of three universities in New England with a C-CERT program. To date, BC's team has not been activated.