I look at CERTs as a “force multiplier”, as ratstr noted in his post, no technical/fire/rescue team will have the necessary resources to be fully self sufficient in a major event. Depending upon the incident, I can envision having 1 CERT under the direction of 1-2 technical/fire/rescue team members, acting as a “strike team”.

Technical rescues are often labor and time intensive operations, having a ready pool of individuals who have an awareness and some training of potential hazards and hazard mitigation that can be assigned important, but time consuming duties (hasty search, crowd control, care of the walking wounded, physical laborers, etc.) is vital. This would free up trained fire/rescue personal to deal with the more technical or possibly hazardous rescues.

I do think it is important to now, before a major event occurs, have the appropriate Public Safety/Emergency Management officials determine how to use CERTs effectively and to introduce the concept to fire/rescue responders, so tuff wars can hopefully be avoided. Having the CERTs actually train on occasion with fire/rescue personal will go along way in fostering the understanding of how CERTs can be utilized.

I have used the CERT training materials with great success in Ecuador for Fire Departments, Civil Defense and Red Cross units. Emergency response training material in Spanish is hard to come by, the CERT material is perfect for these groups as they are often located in small towns and villages, where there are no formal or trained personal.

Pete