SF Neighborhood Emergency Response Team Training

Have you ever wanted to use a fire extinguisher for real? Need a jump-​start on putting together your emergency kit? Just moved to town and are wondering if you should get ready for an earthquake? Want to meet some neighbors and have fun?
And most importantly: Do you love San Francisco and want to help when that inevitable quake (or other disaster) knocks us down?
The NERT training is free, yes free, if you live or work in The City. It’s an amazing way to get prepared for The Big One — and that preparedness will help you with a lot of little disasters, like when your landlord turn the water off for 3 days, or the power goes down, you cut your hand, or you’re the one standing right there when a car accident happens. Knowing this stuff will make you a lot more confident about a lot of things. Even if all you do after taking this training is get yourself a little more ready, you’re one person the SFFD won’t have to rescue. If you’ve got pets, a family, or other people who depend on you to take care of them, you should really consider this.
And don’t assume this is only for the young and able-​bodied! This training is for everyone. I did it in a wheelchair, and I’ve seen senior citizens and disabled folks do it. You don’t have to do anything you can’t do, and one of the most important things we learned is not to get hurt ourselves. I can’t lift rubble off of a victim myself, but now I know how to set up reinforcement and levers to do it safely — and I can tell others how to do it, if it’s one of my neighbors under the rubble. There are also occasional youth trainings, and once a year the training is offered in Cantonese and also in Spanish. The regular English-​language training is offered in different locations at various times of the year. Check the NERT web site or Eventbrite for details on where the next one will be.
The time commitment can feel like a lot, but these are really invaluable skills: disaster and emergency first aid (no CPR, you’ll need to take that elsewhere if you want to), how to set up an emergency kit for yourself and your family, how to make your home safer, how to turn off your gas and water if something breaks badly.
This program was started by San Francisco citizens after Loma Prieta, and it’s been so successful that FEMA copied it — you can now find CERT training programs and teams in lots of communities all over the USA. Lots of volunteers and our Fire Department work hard to make this program happen, and it’s betting bigger and better every year. Your instructors will all be firefighters with a lot of knowledge to share.
Go on, do something for yourself and for your city.

I was first introduced to N.E.R.T. in the summer of 2000. Not to be confused with N.E.R.D. My Director, who was also my mentor, recommended I take this training as a way for me to grow and will benefit me in the long run. Was he ever right.
N.E.R.T. stands for Neighborhood Emergency Response Team. It was established after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. In a major catastrophe, all First Responders will be inundated with emergency calls everywhere in the City. All resources will be stretched thin and the civilian population will have to fend for themselves for several hours and maybe even days. Expect infrastructures to be damaged and public services will be minimal to nonexistent. This is a worst-​case scenario. It may happen… and it has happened.
Living in the Bay Area under numerous fault lines, we’ve heard the phrase, «It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when» so many times before. Remember that this side of the bay is heading south and LaLa land will be up here in the bay in a fraction of an earth time minute. That’s roughly equivalent to when the dinosaurs became extinct to when the first ape-​like creatures began standing on their hind legs. Yes, most of us won’t be around by then, but that’s just the facts.
Here are some questions you really should ask yourselves:
Are you prepared?
Do you know what to do during and after an earthquake?
Do you have a plan?
How do you communicate with your family and loved ones?
Do you know how to shut off your gas and water line?
Do you have enough food and water to last you for more than 72 hours?
What is cribbing?
Do you have first-​aid kits?
There are more questions on the list, but these are the critical ones. N.E.R.T. is a training course facilitated by the SFFD. It’s FREE to all San Francisco residents or if you work in the City. You can have the option of taking the six-​week course or do it all in one day. They will teach you lifesaving techniques and simply knowing what to do is crucial. You don’t want to be that person panicking and running around like a chicken with its head cut off making it worst for everyone else. Once you become certified, you get a hardhat, a vest and an ID. You can also participate in city-​wide drills via notification from email if you choose to sign-​up.
Having taken this training, I am constantly prepared and the most important thing I have taken from this class is having enough water to last your family for 72 hours or more. I always go to Costco and buy 6 cases at a time and rotate them. I also bought a multipurpose tool just in case the big one hits and this tool will be more valuable than gold after the big one hits.
Remember…it’s WHEN not IF.
Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and take this training. You can make it a family affair as it could be a lifesaver. Best thing of all is it doesn’t cost a penny.

If you live in san francisco and are able to do so, take the 6 week course in NERT. Its well worth it. As a landlord I have always been prepared with equipment and supplies necessary to survive and assist neighbors and tenants during a disaster such as the one during 1989 which damaged my building and left tenants without power and water for 3 days.
If you take the course, its 6 weeks of about 3 hours each time. You will learn a lot on being self sufficient and able to help during a disaster.
Most of the fellow students were genuine, others were childish, some played with their cells phones and texted during the class lessons. The instructors were able and good and reliable. Take the course, its for your own good first, I don’t have to tell you much more. Thank you.

End of 2010, so time for full disclosure. Another reason to take NERT training is to be able to observe the cougars lying in wait for the instructors…

I recently graduated from the NERT training program. The past reviews are spot on. For anyone living and/​or working in SF, it’s highly recommend. It’s free and they offer the program in a number of options, i.e. over two days or spread out over multiple ones, so no excuse.
For me personally, it was very informative. I assumed I knew more about how to handle an emergency situation than I really did.
Check it out.

The SF NERT program is a painfully under-​appreciated training program which is put on by the SFFD as part of the national CERT system. The local chapter is particularly relevant given that San Francisco is Earthquake country and has had 2 major quakes in the last century, and is well overdue for another. We’re also a very dense urban population which is likely to be very hard hit by other natural and man-​made disasters. Let’s be ready huh?
This completely FREE training program is available one night a week for 6 weeks or on 2 consecutive (full) Saturdays. It’ll teach you the basics of fighting fires, triaging victims, handling utilities (water/​gas/​electric), interfacing with other first-​responders and a range of other useful disaster skills. This stuff could save not only your life, but those of your family, friends and neighbors.
I have no idea why this sort of training isn’t better promoted and perhaps even compulsory for the vast majority of a city like San Francisco. Get out there and get certified!

just finished taking the 2 day course at UCSF (also offered art 6 session classes in the evenings) and I thought it was very helpful. The classes are taught by firefighters and/​or paramedics who make the classes fun as well as informative. This is not a CPR or First Aid course, but a lesson in Disaster Medicine/​Triage and what to do in case we get hit by a big earthquake or disaster. Would highly recommend everyone take these classes and become certified (2 year certification) as it is better to know what you would need to do in order to survive as disaster before help arrives. Also, the classes are FREE.

Never fear. The world is safer now that I have completed N.E.R.T. training, so I can be prepared when an 8.0 shakes us to our collective core. Now I feel like I should be wearing a cape with matching boots… but please no leotards. No need for the world to see my junk when I am too busy getting puppies out of burning buildings. Yeah, puppies. Definitely not kittens. Let them fend for themselves. Allergies, y’know.
Well, you’re not trained for such heroic deeds in this program. You’re just prepared to be useful when a disaster strikes. That’s always been my worry should I survive the next great earthquake. I just want to avoid being like Victoria Principal in «Earthquake» where she went into an overacting panic as she was watching «Dirty Harry» in a movie theater. I just thought she was delirious from having to wear that Angela Davis-​size Afro wig for her part. In fact, they show this clip in the class (…and yes, that’s Walter Matthau as the drunk)…
The SFFD offers the class either in six weekly installments or two full Saturdays. I went for the latter at St. Kevin’s Church in Bernal Heights and felt it was one of the best uses of my time in this city. The fire department officials present a lot of information, and you do get to go through some scenarios at the end to test what you have learned. Better to screw up here than when the big quake really happens. Keep in mind that this is not Red Cross or CPR training. This is to help you assess emergency conditions, including identifying people in need of medical attention and buildings that need to be searched. There will never be enough firemen to cover all the bases, so I’m just glad I at least know what I can do to help.
When you graduate, you get an official hardhat, working gloves, an orange vest and best of all, a N.E.R.T. card to prove you’re for real. I just need to know I can do something instead of panic and frankly think everyone should take this program. Here is the one tangible upside to Homeland Security since they sponsor it. You can live out your Superman fantasy on your own time. Besides, with the hardhat, you are prepared for a Village People tribute night at the Mint.

NERT sort of separates the talkers from the doers. Lots of folks keep meaning to get ready in some way to be useful in an emergency, but NERT actually gets you there. Mostly speculation inasmuch as we won’t know until it hits, but a little (or lot) of preparation certainly can’t hurt. Besides, who else is going to give you a free orange vest and yellow hardhat (besides maybe the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program, and they want theirs back). Seriously, I feel much better about myself and much better prepared to fit in somewhere should the need ever arise. And the training is absolutely free from the SFFD — come one, six evenings is a small price to pay to have some idea which way to run when the big one hits! They make it very easy to find a session in your neighborhood, or welcome you to any of the others. (You can even make-​up any missed sessions to ensure successful graduation.) A really odd side-​benefit is that, as a «first responder», you can be a card carrying member of the Police Credit Union.

I grew up on the East Coast, and although I’ve been in SF for nearly 9 years now, I always felt like my knowledge of what to do in an earthquake was kind of vague and sketchy. Not anymore.
I was one of the tens of thousands of San Franciscans who signed up to take this class in the aftermath of the federal (lack of) response to Hurricane Katrina. Clearly, when the big one hits, we’re going to be on our own, and with a large proportion of San Francisco’s first responders living outside the city, we may have even less assistance than usual from police and firefighters in the days or weeks following a big quake.
18 hours sounds like a long time to sit through classes, but for the most part, I found them pretty engaging, and a good opportunity to meet fellow civic-​minded citizens, as well. Having taken the class, I feel like I might actually be able to do something helpful in the event of a major quake, but I’d say that most of what I got out of it was a sense of confidence that comes from a greater understanding of what to do when the big one hits. My only criticism of the program is that you have to be pretty proactive about following up on the training. There are neighborhood «teams» and a quarterly newsletter, but I wish there were more opportunities for refresher training and whatnot.
I would highly recommend this course for anyone who doesn’t already know how to fashion a makeshift toilet from a plastic garbage bag.

Woohoo! I’m now a N.E.R.T!
I just graduated on Saturday after taking a 6-​session SFFD course. I’m now a little more prepared for the «Big One» and have a spiffy yellow helmet and orange vest to prove it.
This hands on course takes an honest, blunt approach in describing emergency triage, medicine, search and rescue and preparedness. The teachers are all firefighters and are very cool as they describe in a blazay fashion how much blood a person can lose before they go into shock and die (2 liters). Time to look at some 3^rd degree burn victims in the next slide!
Seriously, a quake of magnitude 8.5 and higher has a 65% chance of occurring in the next 25 years. After the black eye of Katrina it’s nice to know that there’s something proactive you can do to help out San Francisco.
Note: CPR is not taught in this course and actually does little good in a disaster situation. It’s not like TV yo, where you puff in the victims mouth and they gasp for breath, thanking you profusely. You’re breathing for them until they’re hooked up to life support.

Let’s face it, we live in earthquake country. This class will help you prepare yourself, your family and your friends for earthquakes and all sorts of emergencies. Be ready to help yourself, help others, and be a part of your community. Who are you going to depend on in an emergency? We all saw how dependable our government was when Katrina hit, lesson learned, right? Even with the great resources SF has, they won’t be able to help everyone if something really big happens. This class is very informative and it’s free so what’s your excuse?
Cheers to all of the SF Firefighters who teach this class. They make it a fun and enjoyable experience. Be a NERT, come on, you even get your own hard hat.

Do you know how in most disaster films, that there is always the one annoying guy/​gal who panics or does something utterly innane that he/​she puts everyone else in danger and makes the hero/heroine’s job of rescuing the other people all the more difficult… When disaster rolls around for real… I DON’T WANT TO BE THAT GUY!
The SF Fire Dept. offers NERT training for FREE. This is a 6 session program that teaches fire safety, assembling proper emergency kits, medical triage and «light search and rescue» techniques. In a big emergency, the fire dept. will be overwhelmed with calls, the NERT program is designed to pick up the slack. I took it in March, the brave (they have to speak in public after all) firemen and women are all extremely knowledgeable and usually entertaining.
If y’all Unilocalers have time to hit 100+ restaurants/​bars a year, you can certainly find the time to participate in this worthwhile program. Besides the basic 6-​week program, they offer team training and practice rescue events as refreshers.