Mira Mesa CERT Aug 28 Newsletter

Good morning, here is the News:

Street Fair Sign-up—The Mira Mesa Street Fair is Saturday, September 15, 10am—5pm.  OK folks, we could REALLY use a few more people for this.  Your support and commitment is what makes this our most successful recruiting effort, and I can guarantee you'll get some training in that you can use.  New Academy grads, if you don't have your DSW card and equipment yet, don't let that stop you, tell me about it and we'll work something out.   I can also schedule some practice sessions if you want to help but don't feel comfortable doing a demo in front of a crowd (to be frank, don't worry about it, the crowd won't really know if you are doing it right or not).  If you have never been to the Street Fair, you want to see this, it's pretty amazing.  We'll have our CERT trailer and at least one cabana set up.  Typically they put us at the top end of the fair, on Camino Ruiz East side, (north bound) one slot from the end.  Engine Company 38 gets the end slot, because they occasionally have to leave for a callout.  Members of the Mira Mesa High School Air Force ROTC will be helping us with demos again this year, these young people are a real inspiration and fun to work with.  Join us, we'll have a great time.  Please commit soon, I really need to have an event plan and demo schedule drafted by the end of the week, and I need to know who I can count on.  This counts as a Team Meeting for September.

There is no sign-up for this on the website.  Drop me a note, let me know when you can make it (morning or afternoon is good enough, we'll get to specific time slots soon), and if there is a particular demo with which you'd like to get involved.  Let's work together to grow our Team.

Situational Awareness—I'm copying in a note from our Program Manager Carie DeMarco, about an article she came across last week.  It's tough reading, people died, and it did not need to go down like that.  Those of you who have been around for awhile have heard me rant on about situational awareness often enough. Here the hazard is electrical, but it could have been any one of a number of things, collapsing building etc.   In this case, one cool head with a strong flashlight could have saved lives.  Maybe not all of them, these things go down fast, my point is, you don't need super strength or advanced rescue skills to make the difference.  Here is Carie's note:

When I read through the article below, my heart leapt into my throat…this is my biggest nightmare for any volunteer or Good Samaritan.  While CERT training teaches how to help others, the bigger part of the training is to help you keep yourself safe. 

For anyone who took the October Mira Mesa Haunt Search and Rescue CE the past two years and were upset that they were “tricked” and “killed”, here is a real-life lesson of nearly that exact scenario happening (please read the whole article).  The electrocution element of the drill was not put in to “trick” participants, but to present them with a real danger that asked them to think outside of the norm, to be on the look-out for hazards that are not totally obvious.

When considering what we do, danger is real.   I would not be doing my job if the training only focused on the obvious.  Volunteer Safety is always paramount!  Please, always be aware and careful!

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/23/13433684-2-good-samaritans-electrocuted-trying-to-help-car-crash-victim?lite

Thanks and have a good day,

That's all for this week.  Last month at our meeting we discussed putting together a three-day deployment bag, how is everybody doing on that?  Questions, comments, you know how to find me.

-Steve