Hi Mira Mesa CERT members!
I have just added a new post regarding emergency signalling to the Back Channel CERT blog.
Your thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.
TJ Walters
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Mira Mesa CERT Newsletter
Good morning, here is the news:
Continuing Education—Both sessions of the hose
loading class are still open:
The time has now been set at 10am—12pm, Sunday 16 September
and Sunday, 30 September. Both sessions will be held at NTC. There
is some physical activity involved with this one. Basically we will be
learning how to properly re-pack the hose on a fire engine. Normally the
pumper's Crew would do this, during a wildfire disaster we may be called on to
take on this task while the crew rests. It's a simple but vital job that
helps to keep our firefighting assets focused on fighting the fires.
And now let's hear from Captain Obvious; it's hot out.
It's been hot for awhile. Despite the moisture, this kind of heat leads
to very dry brush that has not burned off for over 5 years, and quite a bit of
it longer than that. Let's all hope we dodge this issue one more
time. If we don't. we need to be ready to help. That's what we
do. I'll look forward to seeing you there.
Street Fair—Thanks to all who have signed up for a
shift. We can always use more, so if your schedule has firmed up and you
can put some time in drop me a note. I hope to have a plan in place by
the end of the week, and I should be able to assign specific time slots and
publish a working demo calendar. One of the things we'll do differently
this year is prominently feature our demo schedule in front of the booth,
probably on a white board so we can change it if we need to. This will
encourage people to come back to us for a demo. Not exactly a new
gimmick, but a really good one. Here is the detail again:
Mira Mesa Street Fair
Date: 15 September 2012
Time: 10am—5pm
Location: Camino Ruiz between Mira Mesa Blvd. and New Salem
We are usually very close to New Salem on the East side of
the Street. We've got some skills practice scheduled in wound care and
rescue cribbing. We'll be showing the Public how to load a patient in a
litter, and how to properly size and wear a dust mask. We will also be
working with the Mira Mesa High School Air Force ROTC, a great group of highly
motivated young people. If you find at the last minute that you can put
in some time with us, but you aren't on our schedule, that's OK, let me know
when you can work any time before the event, we'll slot you in someplace.
We're going to have a great time folks. See you there!
That's all for this week. Questions, comments, you
know how to find me.
-Steve
Sunday, September 2, 2012
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!
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
Mira Mesa CERT Aug 21 Newsletter
Good morning, here is the News:
Street Fair Sign-up—The Mira Mesa Street Fair is
Saturday, September 15, 10am—5pm. This is a great opportunity for us to
recruit some new Members and practice fundamental skills together. Yes,
we'll do some cribbing if we have enough people. We can also practice
wound care, carries, I'm up for just about anything, if you want to try it let
me know. Don't really want to do the demos? It's not required, just
man the booth and talk to people. This counts as our Team Meeting for the
month. We're doing two-hour time blocks because experience shows that it
makes the most sense, but if you have a special requirement we can work that
out..
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.
All for this week. I'm not going to miss the hot
weather. Stay cool, be ready.
-Steve
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