Combined Search & Triage Drill

Since the next Tenth Of the Month (TOM) meeting falls on a Saturday, we are extending an invitation to the other CERT's in Battalions 5 and 7 to join us for a combined exercise at the Mira Mesa Rec Center, 8575 New Salem St, San Diego, CA. maps.google.com link Our Rally Point is at the gazebo which is mid-way between the Rec Center building and San Diego Fire Station 38. If you are on New Salem Street and facing the Rec Center, the gazebo is to your right.

We will once again focus on Search and S.T.A.R.T. (Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment) procedures. For this drill, we will be searching the Mira Mesa Rec Center park for "victims" and deciding on the proper S.T.A.R.T. procedure for each case. This drill allows us to practice the first part of an actual activation: initial check-in, team assignments, Search, Triage, and Radio procedures.

The plan is to meet at the Mira Mesa Rally Point 9:30am with your CERT hat, vest, and Go-Bag (and good shoes - no open-toes or sandals). Just look for the green CERT vests and hats. During this pre-briefing time, we will briefly review the various procedures that we will be performing during the exercise.

At approximately 10am, we will begin the simulated activation. You will report in to Logistics where you will be assigned to a team and issued a FRS radio per team. Next, Command and Operations will give a briefing on the incident detail, the search area, safety, radio call-signs and procedures. Then each team will be sent to an area of the park complex to perform a search for our simulated victims (they are small signs with victim and injury details). Once found, each "victim" is run through the S.T.A.R.T. procedure and the position of any "victims" requiring transport is given to Operations via radio.

We performed this same exercise at the last TOM and it went very well. We sent a team out into one section of the park which was dark (it was an weekday evening drill) and they successfully found all of our "victims". It was very educational for everyone and definitely a lot more fun than just having a table-top discussion about it!

Notes:

1. Because this is a combined exercise, we will not be sending out notification text messages to your cellular phones two hours before the drill as we normally do - emails only for this exercise.

2. We will again be using FRS radios for short-range communications, although we have enough for each team, please feel free to bring your own radios to use during the exercise. Please be sure to bring the necessary instructions in order to set the assigned channel and privacy code on your radio. Also, please arrive before 9:30am so that your radios can be set up and tested prior to beginning the exercise.

3. Please review the S.T.A.R.T. procedures. I found an excellent series of videos which are listed in the November 25th post below. Here's the link just in case you cannot see the post. http://miramesacert.blogspot.com/2008/11/simple-triage-and-rapid-treatment.html
When you watch the firefighter performing START, you really begin to grasp just how fast it is!