West Chicago offers emergency response training

Emergency preparedness is an important component of a successful community and all too often severe weather-related tragedies remind us of the importance of disaster preparedness.

With that in mind, the West Chicago Citizen Corps is offering another Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) course.

The corps has worked hard to educate the public on important actions to take in the event of a natural or man-made disaster through an eight-week training course.

The free CERT course will meet from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. every Wednesday starting April 3. Participants must be at least 18 and live or work in West Chicago or the West Chicago Fire Protection District.

CERT training is designed to provide basic training in disaster preparedness, which increases the ability of citizens to survive until responders or other assistance arrives. The course will include instruction on weather safety, fire and life safety, medical, light search and rescue, CERT organization, psychology and terrorism. Participants also will be trained in CPR and AED use.

Those who attend the course learn valuable lessons that may save the life of a family member, neighbor or their own. Learned skills will include the proper way to bandage an injury, use of a fire extinguisher, how to lift a heavy object that has someone trapped and more.

This course will be conducted at the fire protection district training center, 320 Kress Road. To enroll, residents should email Detective Robbi Peterson at rpeterson@westchicago.org with their name, address and contact number.