Emergency Signals Post Added

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

Mira Mesa CERT Newsletter

Good morning, here is the news:

Continuing Education—Both sessions of the hose loading class are still open:

https://apps.sandiego.gov/ereg/cert/courses.php?grp=Continuing+Education+Opportunities

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

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

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