By Mary O’KEEFE

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is holding a training session from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8.

For 21 years Paul and Lisa Dutton have trained about 800 people on how to get ready, stay ready and respond to emergencies. This October will be their 40th CERT class.

The Duttons have dedicated their lives to making sure as many of their neighbors as possible are prepared for any disaster.

“It was when Jennifer [the Duttons’ daughter] was at Dunsmore [Elementary School] and they held a disaster drill,” said Paul of how he started down the CERT path. (Jennifer has since graduated from college and is working for UCLA.) To Paul, he felt the disaster drill was not comprehensive.

“Jennifer was in kindergarten at the time so we took [the drill] over,” he said. “By the time she was in sixth grade we had no less than seven different schools coming to our school to see how we ran the [drill].”

There are still 10 spots left for the upcoming October training. Training takes a total of 24 hours spanning five classes in five days. The first class, Oct. 1, is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the following days, from Oct. 4 – 6, classes are from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station with testing on Oct. 8 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fire House Youth Center.

“We are teaching disaster medical operation,” he said. “We will teach how to place a tourniquet, how to medically assess a person in [distress], which can be used not just during a disaster but anytime.”

CERT trainees will also learn fire suppression, how to prepare their family disaster plan and how to be resilient in a disaster.

“CERT members are [many times] the first responders to a major disaster,” Paul said.

Experts estimate that emergency responders, like members of fire and law enforcement, will be spread thin during an emergency, like an earthquake, and will go first to areas most in need. This means some neighborhoods that have loss of power, water and other utilities will not be responded to as quickly as other areas that have major structural damage. Residents need to be prepared to be on their own for at least three days.

“They say three days but [we teach] you to be ready to be on your own for 30 days,” he said.

CERT not only trains members to be ready to help their family and neighbors but after a disaster happens and after members secure their own families they can respond to predetermined locations.

“We have 10 team locations [to which] CV CERT people are instructed to go,” he said.

Team members in the past have helped with wildfires and floods. Paul said that many residents who have taken CERT training have told him the training they took has saved lives.

“[CERT] is the early [response] system,” he said.

Training is available to anyone from 14 years old and up; however, those under 18 must have a signed parent permission form. For more information or to join the upcoming training session call (818) 249-8378.