Everyday people in the San Fernando Valley are learning how to jump in to save lives when police or emergency response units haven’t arrived.
The Community Emergency Response Team, known as CERT, is a free FEMA-approved seven-week or eight-week class for the public that teaches skills in disaster preparedness for the average individual.
On Monday, September 8, about two dozen residents showed up in the community room at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, for the first of seven weeks of CERT classes. This year’s wildfires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, motivated residents to learn what to do during a disaster.
“I’m near the Sepulveda Basin … and the January wildfires made me feel I needed to be prepared for both me and my family and friends,” said Susie Li, a mother of a young child and a volunteer at a city animal shelter. “I want to go back and teach my family and friends.”
Firefighter Nathan Espinosa led the initial two-and-one-half hour class. “We all can benefit from learning,” Espinosa said.
CERT training classes concentrate on disaster awareness: go-bags (a backpack or duffel bag that contains water, non-perishable food, a first-aid kit, personal items, necessary medications, and copies of important documents); learning to suppress small fires; basic first aid including treatment for shock; evacuation tactics and how to collaborate with city agencies to support neighborhood exits, search tactics and communication including the use of radios.
As of 2025, more than 57,000 people in L.A. have taken the CERT basic training course overseen by the Los Angeles Fire Department throughout the city. The city’s CERT program was the first in the nation, launching in June 1986.
Most of the volunteers training at the Sherman Oaks Galleria were drawn to CERT to learn what to do in a disaster — especially the “big one” — protecting their families, and being useful in emergency situations.
One woman said she had heard time and again to be “prepared,” but realized she didn’t know how. A man who identified himself as Diego said the CERT classes were helpful. He was studying to become a firefighter and wanted to bone up on additional training. A mother and her young son wanted more tools in their tool box and realized that CERT classes offered that.
Maxine and Mark Revoir came to the CERT training from Santa Clarita with a plan in the back of their minds to create a community outreach group where they and others could help neighbors.
“Given the political atmosphere, (people) need help in many ways such as food banks, community gardens and CERT,” Maxine Revoir said. “Through media sources and social media, (we see people) are leaning on the community and how it sustains people such as in the Palisades fire, for example, or after a natural disaster.”
CERT-trained volunteers learn skills including safely finding and assisting victims after a disaster; working effectively in teams; gathering information to support first responders; and learning to help themselves, families and neighbors during emergency crises.
Despite having mutual-aid partners in times of disasters, the Los Angeles City Fire Department can be stretched thin. “We are overwhelmed” in disasters, Espinoza said, so it helps to have partnerships with residents who know the streets.
To sign up for CERT classes in San Fernando Valley, go to https://teamup.com/ksd2113a1f3552ef86. For CERT classes throughout the City of Los Angeles go to: www.cert-la.com. For CERT classes throughout Los Angeles County, go to https://ready.lacounty.gov/cert/