Welcome to the home page for the CERT Fresno Program - a Fresno County-wide activity. Public access is limited to News, the Course Calendar, Volunteer Recognition, and Photo's. The Members Login is currently restricted to CERT Instructors. Take a look at  News in our web. (This page in Spanish)

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is an almost all-volunteer activity of Fresno Citizen Corps, Fresno California, USA with multiple agency support from the County of Fresno (Emergency Services and Sheriff) and Fresno Fire Department, Fresno Police Department. (including City of Fresno Emergency Services Coordinator) American Ambulance and others.  If you are interested in understanding the four stages of Emergencies (Mitigation, Preparation, Response and Recovery) then CERT Training is for you. 

Mission and Purpose: Our basic mission is to train motivated residents in California's Central San Joaquin Valley area to be personally prepared for a disaster by completing the basic FEMA/LAFD Community Emergency Response (CERT) course. CERT trained residents can understand self-sufficiency, safely cope and survive in their homes, work-site and neighborhood for the first 72 hours or more if a mass casualty disaster occurs. A further mission is to form CERT trainees into neighborhood based teams to deliver critical support to first responders, provide immediate assistance to victims, and organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site. During recovery CERT can help  neighborhoods in normalization. CERT personnel can assist in identifying and inventorying pre-disaster resources potentially needed for a disaster (Water, shelter, sanitation, food and health) and also help with non-emergency projects to improve (mitigate) the safety of our community. 

CERT's DO NOT SELF-Dispatch to accident scene's!

The FEMA CERT Brochure (click here) is available for download (Adobe Reader required).

  Why would YOU find CERT so useful?

How to get involved? Take the basic CERT Class. CERT Training is free. Click on the CERT Calendar to see latest class schedule. A simple registration form with a liability release is required for the nine-session 20 hour CERT Course. CERT Trainees are encouraged to purchase their own personal protective equipment (Hard hat, gloves, medical supplies including 4x4"'s, triangular bandage, blanket, eye protection, wrench, flashlight and so on). (Click here for  Personal Disaster Supplies Adobe PDF)

Download, complete and mail (to the address on the registration form) the CERT registration form (Adobe Reader required).

After receiving basic CERT training, get further involved by becoming a team member and/or become an instructor. Graduates of CERT Fresno can also apply to become a CERT Team member (requires a separate CERT Team application, interview, background check and CERT approval). CERT Team members are required to regularly train to maintain and improve their disaster triage skill-set. CERT credentialing has an expiration date, attendance at further training is a requirement to continue the credential.

Graduates of CERT can also apply to become a CERT Fresno Instructor (requires a separate Instructor application, interview, background check and CERT approval ). We actively seek Instructors with a public safety background, fully comfortable with presenting CERT material to groups.

Organize Your OWN Neighborhood! West Valley City Utah Office of Homeland Security has a CERT created publication VERY HELPFUL in organizing your own neighborhood. The PDF file is at this URL (click on it) http://www.wvcert.org/Operations/HomelandSecurityPreparedness.02.pdf

Thanks to Valley Fire Extinguisher Company in Fresno for Fire Extinguisher Refills!

Request a CERT speaker for your community group. We have a PowerPoint presentation called CERT-Lite that one of our members developed. So help promote CERT in your community group by requesting a speaker at [CertEmail].

Los Angeles City Fire Department created CERT in 1985 and LA CERT played a significant role in the Whittier  Narrows Earthquake in 1987. With LA Fire's success in CERT, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) adopted LA Fire's training model. Many communities now have CERT Training across the country.  CERT Los Angeles web-site is - http://www.cert-la.com

Fresno Citizen Corps started CERT Fresno in late 2002. Early in 2003 Los Angeles City Fire Department CERT Instructor Stacy Gerlich (click here for her picture - Stacy in the middle) trained 37 area public safety volunteers as potential Fresno CERT Instructors. An additional 20 instructors from far parts of Central California were trained in June 2003.

CERT Fresno is possible through community support and by a FEMA/California State GoServ/California Service Corps CERT Grant. Fresno CERT Training is a standardized Department of Homeland Security FEMA nine-unit twenty hour course for residents of Central California. To learn more about Fresno Citizen Corps click on the link here. Fresno Citizen Corps web-site http:/www.fresnocitizencorps.org.

Read what other CERT's around the USA are up to click on this link http://www.naem.com/connection.html

Please go to CERT Calendar to see the posted schedule of classes.

Instructors, we're asking you to record your CERT donated time each month. An On-line Volunteer e-mail Time Sheet is located on the documents page. Click on the form and complete the information. As this is a server-based form there is some delay and lag in submission - however, those with patience are rewarded with a confirmation page reflecting their submission - This is an excellent way to show quantitatively how much CERT benefits the community.. 

This project web for CERT Fresno Instructors started July 20, 2003. It is a working site where CERT Instructors can exchange information about the CERT Program. When we change documents or instructional materials the updated items will be posted on this site. The most recent changes are listed first, and each item is linked to the page with the updated content.

Other Web-sites of interest

Are You Ready? FEMA Publication

FirstGov - Federal Government WEB Portal - Citizen Preparedness

FBI Tips and Public Leads

Disaster Preparedness for People With Disabilities -

Individual Preparedness Response to Chemical, Radiological, Nuclear, and Biological Terrorist Attacks: A Quick Guide - Rand Corp Site

Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness - LDS Church Site 

Power (electricity) Outage Safety - PG&E in English, Spanish, Chinese

Animals In Disaster - Three-Day Training Noah's Wish, Placerville, California

Business Survival - After the Disaster....What Should I Do Now?

Human Service Workers In Major Disasters - Assisting Survivors - Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance (COVA).

State Liability Laws for Charitable Organizations and Volunteers - Nonprofit Risk Management Center.

Spontaneous Volunteers - What others are doing.

Investing in Volunteer Resources Management, UPS Foundation: 

Central California Emergency Announcement System (EAS)

Computer Security, Home and Corporate Users

Public Health Questions - Centers For Disease Control and Prevention

Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Forms - Interpol