Spurred on by my friend Charles Riggs's disaster preparedness blog, I decided to see what I might find in the Internet community in San Diego  to educate me about our local fire threats .

2003 was as nasty a year  as I’ve experienced as a resident—375,000 acres burned, 15 people killed (including one firefighter), over 140 injuries and something on the order of 3,000 residences and outbuildings destroyed. Not a good year.

Searching about, I found that the City of San Diego Fire/Rescue Department site  has a volunteer program called CERT  (Community Emergency Response Team) that actually solicits members of the community and educates them to become local experts capable of responding to a wide range of possible disaster events. Apparently, hundreds of local folks are becoming trained at government cost to handle the next big mess.

To answer the question what type of person becomes a CERT team member :

"There is a CERT team role for people of all abilities and specialties—not just medical and rescue volunteers. We need people that have good organizational skills, people skills, ham radio operators and other aptitudes necessary to a team."

Something to think about as our fire season rolls along.