South San Francisco, CA June 5, 2015 Submitted by Leslie Arroyo, City of SSF 
South San Francisco Fire Department is Only Fire Department in
San Mateo County to Offer Teen CERT Training
Twenty students from El Camino High School and South San Francisco High Schools completed five days of intensive Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training today. The primary objective of Teen CERT is to keep teens and those around them safe before and during a disaster.
“Should a disaster occur, this next generation of prepared citizens is able to help us out at school and in their neighborhoods,” said Ken Anderson, Disaster Preparedness Manager. “In addition, they’re also spreading the preparedness message to their entire family.”
South San Francisco has had an adult CERT team for more than 20 years, but this is only the second group of teen volunteers going through the academy. The last teen academy was in 2013.
“This has been a great group of teens participating in this academy,” continued Anderson. “This is their first week of summer break and they chose to participate in this – that’s the kind of dedication we want in our CERT volunteers.”
Teen CERT training teaches volunteers about the potential disasters that could affect their area and how to safely respond to them. The topics covered this week included disaster preparedness, fire safety and suppression, search and rescue, medical triage and treatment, disaster psychology, terrorism and understanding campus emergency plans. The students spent Monday through Thursday at the Emergency Command Center and Fire Tower in South San Francisco and today, they spent their time at the high schools, focusing on the new skills they learned.
The Teen CERT group received a donation of more than $4,000 from Rotary District 5150 in support of supplies. In addition, the Rotary included 10 backpacks with gear for Westborough Middle School, since this school has an advanced emergency program in place as well.
On Thursday, June 25th, the Teen CERT group will present to the South San Francisco Unified School District Board about their learnings and will also receive their certificates. This will take place at 7:00pm at Baden Continuation School in South San Francisco.
Lastly, on Sunday, August 2nd, this year’s Golden Gate Park Concert Band will honor CERT volunteers. This is a free concert that is open to the public and starts at 1:00pm.
Students completed training today and will present
to SSFUSD Board on June 25, 2015
Photo SSF