Tampa Bay REACT, Inc. has partnered with Greater Tampa CERT to assist the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County in the event of a Disaster or Emergency. Members are trained by Certified Trainers from the City of Tampa Fire Rescue Division. Greater Tampa CERT is sponsored by Tampa Fire Rescue and the City of Tampa Emergency Management.

What is CERT?

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program helps train people to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities. When emergencies happen, CERT members can give critical support to first responders, provide immediate assistance to victims and organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site. CERT members can also help with non-emergency projects that help improve the safety of the community.

The CERT course is taught in the community by a trained team of first responders and community members who have completed a CERT train-the-trainer course conducted by their state training office for emergency management, or FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI), located in Emmitsburg, MD. CERT training includes disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, light search and rescue operations and terrorism awareness.

CERT History

The Community Emergency Response Team concept was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985. The Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 underscored the area-wide threat of a major disaster in California. Further, it confirmed the need for training civilians to meet their immediate needs. As a result, the LAFD created the Disaster Preparedness Division with the purpose of training citizens and private and government employees. Currently there are thousands of CERT teams around the United States.

After a disaster, first responders (fire and police) and other government service providers are overwhelmed. Public services cannot be delivered everywhere that help is needed. Experience has shown that in a disaster setting ordinary citizens make over 80 per cent of successful rescues as they respond to the emergency in their community. However, many untrained volunteer rescuers actually may cause harm or become injured in the process.