·         The Impact on the Infrastructure:  The potential effect of extreme emergencies and disasters on transportation; electrical service; telephone communication; fuel; food, water, and shelter; and emergency services.

·         Structural and Nonstructural Hazards:  Potentially hazardous conditions in various types of structures and their contents during a disaster.

·         Hazard Mitigation:  What to do to reduce the risk of damage from hazards that threaten your area.

·         Home and Workplace Preparedness:  How you can prepare in advance to reduce structural and nonstructural hazards and survive the initial period after a disaster.

·         Community Preparedness:  How a community can prepare in advance to respond.

·         Protection for Disaster Workers:  Laws that protect disaster workers from liability.

    Unit 2: Fire Safety

·         Fire Chemistry:  How fire occurs, classes of fire, and choosing the correct means to extinguish each type of fire.

·         Fire Hazards:  Potential fire hazards in the home and workplace, and fire prevention strategies.

·         Fire Safety:  How to evaluate fires, assess firefighting resources, and determine a course of action.

·         Portable Fire Extinguishers:  Types of portable fire extinguishers and how to operate them.

·         Fire Suppression Safety:  How to decide if you should attempt to extinguish a fire; how to approach and extinguish a fire safely.

·         Teamwork:  The importance of working with a buddy.

·         Hazardous Materials:  How to identify potentially dangerous materials in storage, in transit, and in your home.

    Unit 3: Disaster Medical Operations, Part 1 

·         Life-threatening Conditions:  How to recognize and treat an airway obstruction, bleeding, and shock.

·         Triage:  Principles of triage and how to conduct triage evaluations.

    Unit 4: Disaster Medical Operations,  Part 2  

·         Public Health Considerations:  How to maintain hygiene and sanitation.

·         Functions of Disaster Medical Operations:  How to conduct the four major sub-functions of disaster medical operations.

·         Disaster Medical Treatment Areas:  How to establish them and what their functions are.

·         Patient Evaluation:  How to perform a head-to-toe patient evaluation to identify and treat injuries.

·         Basic Treatment—How To:

ü  Treat burns.

ü  Dress and bandage wounds.

ü  Treat fractures, dislocations, sprains, and strains.

ü  Apply splints to hands, arms, and legs.

ü  Treat hypothermia.

ü  Control nasal bleeding.

    Unit 5: Light Search and Rescue Operations 

·        Search and Rescue Size-Up:  How to size up the situation in which the search and rescue teams will operate.

·         Conducting Search Operations:  How to search systematically for disaster victims.

·         Conducting Rescue Operations:  Safe techniques for lifting, leveraging, cribbing, and victim removal.

    Unit 6:  CERT Organization 

·         CERT Organization:  How to organize and deploy volunteer resources according to CERT organizational principles.

·         Rescuer Safety:  How to protect your own safety and your buddy’s during search and rescue.

·         Documentation:  Strategies for documenting situation and resource status.

·         Team Organization:  A tabletop exercise will give you the opportunity to apply your knowledge of team organization.

    Unit 7: Disaster Psychology

·         Disaster Psychology:  The psychological impact of a disaster on rescuers and victims, and how to provide “psychological first aid.”

·         Caring for Yourself, Your Buddy, and Victims:  Steps one can take individually and as part of a CERT before, immediately following, and after a disaster.

    Unit 8: Terrorism and CERT

·         What Terrorism Is:  The definition of terrorism and terrorist goals.

·         Terrorist Weapons:  The weapons that terrorists are known or are suspected to have and the risk posed by various terrorist weapons.

·         B-NICE Indicators:  Cues that help to identify a when a terrorist attack has occurred or may be imminent.

·         CERTs and Terrorist Incidents:  CERT protocols for terrorist incidents and protective action following an event.

    Unit 9: Course Review and Disaster Simulation 

·         A Review of Key Points from the Course.

·         A Final Exercise.