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Central County Fire Department
CERT Newsletter
October 2017
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Central County Fire Department is dedicated to keeping our communities prepared and resilient by providing information that will allow them to serve not only themselves but their neighborhood and beyond. This e-Newsletter is to keep you informed.
Preparedness and resilience starts with you.
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October is Fire Prevention Month
Kim Giuliacci, Fire Prevention Specialist - Central County Fire Department
In a fire, seconds count. Seconds can mean the difference between residents of our community escaping safely from a fire or having their lives end in tragedy. This year's theme, "Every Second Counts: Plan 2 Ways Out!", reinforces why everyone needs to have an escape plan.
Get started with your own fire escape plan! Click here to view tips and a fire escape planning grid.
Halloween Safety Tips
Kim Giuliacci, Fire Prevention Specialist - Central County Fire Department
Did you know? | Decorations are the first thing to ignite in 900 reported home fires each year in the US. Two of every five of these fires were started by a candle.
Halloween Parties | If your children are going to Halloween parties at others' homes, have them look for ways out of the home and plan how they would get out in an emergency as well as a safe meeting place outside.
Have a happy AND safe Halloween! Click
here for more safety tips.
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City of Burlingame CERT Updates
Rik Kasuga, Burlingame CERT Volunteer Program Coordinator
On October 14, from 9-10:30 am, Burlingame CERTs will be participating in the Burlingame Annual Citywide Drill. All Burlingame CERTs are encouraged to participate by helping your own participating neighborhood or by joining another participating neighborhood to learn about the Burlingame Neighborhood Network model of neighborhood disaster response.
In addition, there would be an opportunity to be part of the neighborhood team and contribute to the disaster response during the drill. If you have not already signed up in a neighborhood and are interested in participating in the drill, please contact Rik Kasuga, Burlingame CERT Volunteer Program Coordinator, at [email protected] for further information. Read more...
Good News! Burlingame CERT now has the capability to send out a Burlingame CERT SMC Alert. This will be the initial way that a Burlingame CERT activation notice will be sent. Therefore, if you have not already signed on to SMC Alert, please do so at hsd.smcsheriff.com. On October 14, the day of the Burlingame Citywide Disaster Drill, this SMC Alert capability will be tested by sending a message to certain Burlingame CERT members. If you do receive this test Burlingame CERT SMC Alert, please respond as directed.
Beginning in January of 2018, Burlingame CERT will have a monthly newsletter with a short review of certain Basic Training information and skills. Stay tuned! Welcome to October - the second month of autumn. The first thing that may come to mind is that autumn festivals begin as does celebrating Halloween at months end. Whether parties or costumes and parades we should take some time in-between for awareness of other important dates and events.
What We've Learned from Catastrophes - San Mateo Daily Journal
Terry Nagel, Director, Burlingame Neighborhood Network
Notice something interesting about the recent hurricanes and earthquakes?
The nightly news showed hundreds of residents in Mexico passing buckets of rubble to waiting dump trucks, hoping to free their neighbors from collapsed buildings. After Hurricane Harvey, volunteers organized a flotilla of boats that systematically combed neighborhoods to rescue stranded people and pets. In its coverage of Harvey, The New York Times reported, "Alongside government actions, there has been an equally giant, largely improvised effort by volunteers."
Read more...
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City of Millbrae CERT Highlights
Marge Colapietro, Millbrae LEND-CERT Public Information Officer
Welcome to October - the second month of autumn. The first thing that may come to mind is that autumn festivals begin as does celebrating Halloween at months end. Whether parties or costumes and parades we should take some time in-between for awareness of other important dates and events.
October is FIRE PREVENTION MONTH. Specifically, Fire Prevention Week is October 8th - 14th. Our CCFD Firefighters and Fire Prevention Team Members will be quite busy this month with community outreach programs in the schools. Please tune-in to MCTV (Comcast Cable Channel 27 and ATT Cable Channel 99) for special Public Service Announcements from the CCFD Fire Prevention Team. You can also access the PSA by linking to the MCTV home page: www.mctv.tv then click onto to their YouTube icon. Thank you MCTV and CCFD!
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October 19th is designated as the "Great California Shake-Out" day. Currently, throughout the world over 21 million people have registered to participate in this year's drill and are "Getting Ready to Shake-Out." The exact observance is 10:19 AM on 10/19/2017. Click here for more information.
Many of our Emergency Preparedness Members will recall that back in June 2010 our very own Team Member Tom Brocher gave a workshop regarding Earthquakes in California with a focus on what our Millbrae community can expect in the years to come as earthquakes occur. Tom will be recording a Public Service Announcement (PSA) produced by MCTV in the next week or so. It will be replayed on MCTV and be accessible on the Channels and YouTube. Tom is the Team Chief Scientist on the Earthquake Hazards Team and most recently served as the Coordinator for Northern California Earthquake Hazard Investigations for the USGS in Menlo Park, where he has worked for 23 years. Tom has B.S. in Geology from University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from Princeton University - way to go Tom! We look forward to the production. We also give a HUGE thanks to MCTV for partnering with us for the two above productions.
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We have a few KUDOS to shout out about: to Villiami Dauwe our Millbrae Deputy CERT Volunteer Coordinator for stepping-in for our Coordinator - Dino DeRanieri at the Millbrae Chamber of Commerce Art and Wine Festival. Villiami was interviewed live on Saturday afternoon by MCTV Broadcast Host - Kenny Milch (many of us know Kenny as a longtime beloved teacher at Taylor Middle School). Villiami did a good job of representing our Emergency Preparedness Programs and encouraging the public to take the January classes. You can watch the replay of the A&W Festival on the MCTV channels and on YouTube.
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To each and all of our volunteers who staffed our CERT booth at the Millbrae Art and Wine Festival in the triple-digit temperature that plagued Millbrae all day long. Some volunteers worked from 7am to 7pm. Our booth was staffed both Saturday and Sunday. THANK YOU FOR PERSEVERING THROUGH. Click here to view photos from the event (via Facebook).
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We also give HUGE KUDOS to the eleven (11) Millbrae CERT members who volunteered to participate in the Bay Area Urban Shield Drill on September 7th at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.
Our CERT team had the second highest participation of volunteers of all agencies! It was one of the "severe heat days."
There are a couple videos of the Urban Shield Drill Day that can be accessed at: http://bit.ly/2fLamlP where you'll see some familiar Millbrae faces!
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On Tuesday, September 26th our City of Millbrae OES Coordinator Bill Reilly gave a presentation to the Millbrae City Council about the San Mateo County Alert System (a/k/a SMC ALERT).
Bill gave specific statics regarding Millbrae's participation in SMC ALERT:
- Population of Millbrae: 22,661
- SMC Alert Subscribers: 1,463 (6.5% of residents)
- Subscribers from other cities interested in Millbrae alerts: 5,777
- Total number of contacts reached: 7,240 (12% of all subscribers
Bill encouraged everyone present and those at home watching to sign-up for SMC ALERT - it is an important and essential part of public safety. Mayor Reuben Holober issued a City of Millbrae Proclamation on behalf of the City council declaring "September 26, 2017 as SMC ALERT DAY" in the City of Millbrae. You may go to MCTV to watch a replay of the Council Meeting - it is at the beginning of the meeting. Click here to learn more/sign up for SMC ALERT.
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Last month we bid farewell and good wishes to Lisa Bartolo our CERT office liaison at CCFD as she moved up to a different department at CCFD. One of the many responsibilities Lisa had was to coordinate the bi-monthly CERT Newsletter. She did an excellent job of ensuring Millbrae news was shared with both of our partnering agencies Burlingame and Hillsborough.
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This month we are happy to welcome Jasmine Del Chiaro the Administrative Clerk at CCFD who takes over the CERT duties for Lisa. Dino is "very confident that Jasmine will work well with us - she is quite organized, efficient and enthusiastic about CERT."
The next round of CCFD classes are scheduled for January 18, through March 10, 2018 at 450 Poplar Ave. in the Chetcuti Room and at Fire Station 37 in Millbrae on Skills Day. PLEASE encourage your family, neighbors, friends to sign-up for these classes.
Click
here for the CERT Class Schedule.
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Halloween is on Tuesday, October 31st. PLEASE discuss Halloween safety issues with your children. Please be very cautious while driving in the dark of the October night - do not get distracted either while driving or walking with your cell phones. Enjoy a safe evening!
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| ****** UPCOMING EVENTS ******
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Burlingame Annual Citywide Emergency Drill
October 14, 2017
9:00am to 10:30am
Burlingame CERT members are needed for the annual BNN Emergency Drill. It's a great opportunity to learn and practice new skills that can help neighbors respond to a mock disaster.
You can participate in a drill in your neighborhood or be assigned to a block in Burlingame in need of CERT assistance.
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HNN Annual Exercise and Training Session
October 22, 2017
10:00am to 1:00pm
Town of Hillsborough - Council Chambers
1600 Floribunda Avenue
Please join us for a live look at an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This exercise will include real life scenarios!
Captain Doug Davis with the
Hillsborough Police Department and the Commander of the San Mateo County Terrorism Counter Assault Team and Deputy Chief Drew Flinders from the
Central County Fire Department conjunction with our community partners at the
Hillsborough Neighborhood Network will be conducting the annual emergency preparedness drill.
Come take part in this exciting and rare exercise and learn what steps you can take during an actual emergency to help your family, your neighbors and your community. The SWAT MRAP, along with the fire department's Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) vehicle, will be on hand to tour and photograph.
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CERT Winter Session Training - 2018
January 28th through March 10th, 2018
Chetcuti Room
450 Poplar Ave., Millbrae
Our CERT Winter Training 2018 schedule is out. CERT educates individuals about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.
- Click here to download flyer
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As always stay involved and stay connected. The Burlingame and Hillsborough Neighborhood Networks have excellent ways of getting to know your neighbors and what each of you can do to make your neighborhood a better and safer place. Go to
BNN for Burlingame Neighborhood Network and
HNN
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