Program Name
School
Emergency Response Team (SERT)
Administering Agency
Kent
(WA) Fire Department and Life Safety
Contact Person (Name/Title)
Larry
Webb, Battalion Chief OEM
Address
220-4th
Ave. S. Kent, WA 98032
Telephone Number
253-856-4402
Fax Number
253-856-6400
Kent,
Washington is vulnerable to a variety of natural and technological hazards.
School facilities, staff and students are not exempt to the effects
of these hazards. The Kent
School District, Kent Fire and Life Safety and the Emergency Management
Office have formed a partnership to train school staff to prepare for and
respond to these hazards.
This Kent Fire Department-Kent School District
Preparedness Partnership began in the mid 90’s.
The Kent School District understood that emergency resources would be
overwhelmed following a major event and help might not be immediately
available. Administrators knew
that each school site needed to have the skilled staff to meet emergency
needs following an incident.
Kent Fire and Life Safety had already been involved in schools
through its emergency preparedness classes, drills and earthquake month
campaigns. When the Kent School District requested assistance in
creating school emergency plans, Emergency Management taught FEMA’s
two-day Earthquake Safety Program for
Schools to 75+ Kent school representatives.
Following a windstorm and several snow/ice storms, Emergency
Management taught FEMA’s Multi-Hazard
Safety Program for Schools in 1997.
As
the Kent schools developed their emergency plans and identified essential
emergency response positions such as Incident Commander, Medical, Fire
Suppression, Search and Rescue, they realized school staff did not have
training to fill these positions and requested assistance from Kent Fire and
Life Safety. This request
resulted in the creation of the School
Emergency Response Team Program (S.E.R.T.). This four-hour program
provides instruction and hands-on training in the following:
START - Simple
triage and rapid treatment –
Sorting
and treating injured victims.
Fire Suppression
- When and how to use extinguishers
including live fire training.
Heavy
Lift/Cribbing –
Working as a
team to safely lift heavy items such as filing cabinets, shelves, and walls.
Light Search and
Rescue - Systematic search for
missing persons, hazards and damage. Effective rescuing of persons injured
and in need.
Accountability
- An organized method to account for
all students and staff.
Incident Command
System – Overview of the
organizational structure used by fire, law enforcement, and medical
responders. Incorporated school
command system into the Incident Command System.
All S.E.R.T. training is held at the Police/Fire
training center and involves exercises in triaging a group of victims,
moving a 6,000-pound object, and extinguishing live fire while searching for
victims in the drill tower, following a simulated earthquake. This four-hour training has been taught to several hundred
Kent school representatives from elementary, junior and senior high schools;
administration; transportation; security; maintenance; and food service.
Also approximately 100 bus transportation representatives from the
Puget Sound area and 60 school staff at the 2001 Western Washington State
School Emergency Preparedness Conference received this training.
Kent School District appreciates Kent Fire and Life
Safety and Emergency Management for their enthusiasm, commitment, and vision
in preparing our community for a major disaster. The goal of this
partnership is to train school staff to be comfortable in an uncomfortable
situation. This program has better prepared school staff to help school
children in the event of an emergency.
Through its partnership, the school district purchased emergency
equipment for their facilities. Several
incidents have also occurred where school staff utilized their training to
extinguish fires and felt the training enhanced their confidence in
responding to the February 28, 2001, Nisqually earthquake.
