4 Lauded for Forming Disaster Aid Team

For their participation in forming the 18,000-volunteer “community emergency response team” of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s disaster preparedness section, four city officials were honored Thursday night at Fire Station No. 88.

Recognizing the need for an involved, trained and cool-headed group of civilians in the event of a disaster, City Councilman Hal Bernson, then-Mayor Tom Bradley, then-Assistant Fire Chief Frank Borden and then-Fire Chief Donald O. Manning created the corps of community volunteers after the 1987 Whittier quake.

Bernson and Borden attended the ceremony, while Manning and Bradley were unable to be present. Fire Chief Bill Bamattre and City Councilman Mike Feuer also attended.

Each year, the Fire Department trains about 4,500 CERT volunteers to free trapped people, check neighborhoods for injuries and shut off gas mains in the event of a disaster.

The quality of CERT training, said Chatsworth volunteer Diane Higginson, was evident in the hours after the Northridge earthquake of January 1994.

“When the earthquake hit here, it cut everyone off, the communication was literally zero,” she recalled. “But enough people were trained [through CERT] to be able to know, common sense-wise, what to do in a total disaster . . . and how to keep their communities intact and free of panic.”