AGOURA HILLS : Class on Earthquake Preparedness Offered

When Scott Brewer was jolted awake by the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake, he knew it was time to practice what he had been teaching.

“My first reaction was that this is actually happening; this was no drill,” said Brewer, who instructs a disaster preparedness class sponsored by the city of Agoura Hills.

After the earth stopped shaking, Brewer checked to make sure his wife, Susan, who had been sleeping beside him, was all right, he said. Then, they both put on heavy shoes to avoid cutting their feet on broken glass.

They checked the house for broken windows or structural damage that could cause injury, he said. After that, they checked for gas leaks, then ventured outside.

They discovered that much of the home’s Spanish tile roof had been shaken loose and was piled in a heap outside their door, Brewer said. That’s a lesson, he added, on why you should never run outside during earthquakes, as some suggest.

“If we had run outside,” he said, “we would have been at the bottom of all that tile.”

Brewer’s reaction to the quake serves as a real-life example of some of the survival techniques included in his free six-week course. The first session of a new set of classes begins tonight at 7 p.m. at Agoura Hills High School. Non-residents are welcome.

Brewer, director of the Agoura Hills Disaster Response Team, said the course is designed to save lives. “Anyone who has done these things to prepare, that is one less potential victim that we have to rescue,” said Brewer, who has been teaching the course since 1988.

Alex Robertson of Agoura Hills says he wishes he and his fiancee had taken the course before the Northridge earthquake--instead of after. “We found out after the quake that we were out of power for three days. And we got a dose of reality: that we had to be depending upon ourselves, and that we were not properly prepared.”

Tonight’s session, Brewer said, covers basic earthquake preparedness. “This teaches people what to do before, during, and after, at home, in their car, at school, or out in public.”

The second and third sessions cover first aid, including how to deal with people who have been traumatized by disaster, he said. The fourth session, covering hazardous materials safety, is taught by the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials unit.

The fifth session covers urban search and rescue techniques, which include rescuing people trapped in their homes, Brewer said. It stresses using caution in deciding whether to try to rescue someone. The final course is on fire safety and suppression.