Kaysville City has an Emergency Preparedness Plan under the direction of the Fire Department. Kaysville Fire sponsors the Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT). The CERT program helps to prepare citizen volunteers to respond to emergency situations that may affect the community. CERT is trained and ready to help residents in case of an emergency. The program puts needed skills for preparedness, response, and recovery into the hands of everyday citizens and promotes a common community wide operating picture and organization.

Other benefits of the program are to foster a greater spirit of community (working together from the top leadership down to each citizen). Residents feel empowered to help each other and feel a part of their neighborhood and greater community. Community leaders stay in closer touch with the needs of their citizens and augment professional responders when needed in a disaster. The program increases community leadership situational awareness and provides added manpower when needed. The group can fulfill other disaster related needs such as first aid, sandbagging, animals, POD distribution (centralized locations where the public can pick up life-sustaining supplies after a disaster or emergency), search & rescue, lost children, firefighter rehab, and shelter assistance.

 Online coursework must be completed before each of the four in-class training sessions, which are held from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on the last Thursday of each month at the Fire Station Conference Room. Specific class dates are Jan. 30 (class 1); Feb. 27 (class 2); March 27 (class 3); and April 24 (class 4). There will be a final exercise on April 26 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The class is free; however, you will need to pay $25 for the personal safety equipment you will need for your kit.

For additional information, please contact Kaysville’s CERT Coordinator, Tracy Littledike, or email at [email protected].λ