Business Emergency Response Team (BERT)

Meet BERT (Business Emergency Response Team). CERT San Diego offers custom BERT training programs specifically for businesses on a fee basis. Firefighters, lifeguards and paramedics train these classes at your facility or ours on a time table that works for you. Or you may send employees living in the City of San Diego to our tuition-free CERT academies as space allows.

We recommend that you train as much of your employee base as possible in CERT techniques, so that regardless of where they are in a disaster, they know what to do. High-rise buildings, buildings in dense urban areas and high visitor areas are of key importance for CERT training. CERT members augment your existing security and operations staff when it is needed most.

If a major earthquake were to strike San Diego, thousands of employees could be stranded at work, on the road or at home. Does your company have 3 days to 3 weeks of food, water and emergency supplies on hand to support your entire employee and visitor base until access and services are restored? What if the communities surrounding your business were impacted- could your BERT team step in to help? Business CERT volunteers could play a key role in business continuity and community survival those first few days and weeks after an unthinkable disaster.

CERT San Diego graduates receive distinctive green CERT vests and helmets and City/County -issued ID cards indicating that they are nationally accredited Disaster Service Workers (DSW's), allowed into closed areas to support the San Diego Fire-Rescue department.

For a presentation or more information on developing a CERT program at your corporation or business group, please call Carie DeMarco-Krzys, CERT Program Manager at (619) 692-4988.