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Fla. volunteers ready to help during emergency
By LIANE SMITH
Naples Daily News
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — Just before sundown, seven Bonita Springs residents storm the fire department's Station Four, sporting dark green vests, backpacks and helmets, ready to tackle their final exam - two simulated emergency training exercises set up by Lt. Frank Giuliano and his daughter, Nicole Giuliano, assistant public education specialist and information officer.
The volunteers, led by team captain Richard Brant, first have to search a wooded area last week for a dummy - representing a missing child - who was reported missing 29 hours before.
"Does he have any physical problems we should be aware of?" Brant asks before leading his team around a lake and into the woods.
Communicating with Frank Giuliano throughout the search, the team soon comes upon the dummy, who has suffered a broken leg. The team quickly throws down their backpacks and checks the fictitious victim's vitals, and places a splint on the dummy before carrying it back to safety.
On the journey back, volunteer Sheridan Fenwick, a Bonita Bay resident, soothes the victim by repeating the dummy's name, patting his head. The retired neural psychologist, who practiced in a hospital for 25 years, says she thinks her experience will fit nicely with the volunteer program.
"I thought I could help," Fenwick says simply.
The newly-implemented Community Emergency Response Team, known as CERT, is less than a year old. It now has
16 members scattered throughout Bonita, people ready to aid in emergency situations such as hurricanes and minor situations such as traffic control. The volunteers take an eight-week course that covers disaster preparedness, fire extinguisher training, disaster medical operations, search and rescue, disaster psychology and terrorism.
"They'll be pretty useful in a hurricane or disaster-related incident," Frank Giuliano said.
During Hurricane Charley, for example, the department spent a great deal of time cutting access to roads so emergency personnel could respond, he added. That delayed the time it took to reach individual neighborhoods. With an increase of CERT volunteers, they can act as first responders in their neighborhoods until officials arrive.
"It's good to have a CERT member in your neighborhood," Nicole Giuliano said.
After the volunteers complete their first training mission, they soon find out that a "tornado" has hit the training tower behind Station Four, which the department has turned into a two-story façade of an office/residential building.
The team splits off into smaller groups to set up a first aid station a safe distance away from the building, while others go inside to search for victims. Once inside, the volunteers battle a small fire, rescue victims, report any fatalities, and chalk the building on the outside so that when emergency personnel arrive on the scene, they will have a jump-start on the situation.
The youngest CERT member, 29-year-old David Gimenez, who lives off Old 41 Road and is a maintenance worker by day, began volunteering with emergency organizations like the American Red Cross when he was 18 and living in Venezuela.
"I like helping people," Gimenez said.
Most of the volunteers are retired, such as CERT captain Richard Brant who moved to Bonita Springs last November. The 66-year-old retired educator from Pittsburgh, who has been a volunteer game warden and is also a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (Wiggins Pass Flotilla 96), says he isn't ready to stop helping.
"I still had this enthusiasm," Brant explains. "Hopefully, we will be called for minor things, but if not, we're prepared."
Copyright 2008 Collier County Publishing Company
Naples Daily News
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — Just before sundown, seven Bonita Springs residents storm the fire department's Station Four, sporting dark green vests, backpacks and helmets, ready to tackle their final exam - two simulated emergency training exercises set up by Lt. Frank Giuliano and his daughter, Nicole Giuliano, assistant public education specialist and information officer.
The volunteers, led by team captain Richard Brant, first have to search a wooded area last week for a dummy - representing a missing child - who was reported missing 29 hours before.
"Does he have any physical problems we should be aware of?" Brant asks before leading his team around a lake and into the woods.
Communicating with Frank Giuliano throughout the search, the team soon comes upon the dummy, who has suffered a broken leg. The team quickly throws down their backpacks and checks the fictitious victim's vitals, and places a splint on the dummy before carrying it back to safety.
On the journey back, volunteer Sheridan Fenwick, a Bonita Bay resident, soothes the victim by repeating the dummy's name, patting his head. The retired neural psychologist, who practiced in a hospital for 25 years, says she thinks her experience will fit nicely with the volunteer program.
"I thought I could help," Fenwick says simply.
The newly-implemented Community Emergency Response Team, known as CERT, is less than a year old. It now has
16 members scattered throughout Bonita, people ready to aid in emergency situations such as hurricanes and minor situations such as traffic control. The volunteers take an eight-week course that covers disaster preparedness, fire extinguisher training, disaster medical operations, search and rescue, disaster psychology and terrorism.
"They'll be pretty useful in a hurricane or disaster-related incident," Frank Giuliano said.
During Hurricane Charley, for example, the department spent a great deal of time cutting access to roads so emergency personnel could respond, he added. That delayed the time it took to reach individual neighborhoods. With an increase of CERT volunteers, they can act as first responders in their neighborhoods until officials arrive.
"It's good to have a CERT member in your neighborhood," Nicole Giuliano said.
After the volunteers complete their first training mission, they soon find out that a "tornado" has hit the training tower behind Station Four, which the department has turned into a two-story façade of an office/residential building.
The team splits off into smaller groups to set up a first aid station a safe distance away from the building, while others go inside to search for victims. Once inside, the volunteers battle a small fire, rescue victims, report any fatalities, and chalk the building on the outside so that when emergency personnel arrive on the scene, they will have a jump-start on the situation.
The youngest CERT member, 29-year-old David Gimenez, who lives off Old 41 Road and is a maintenance worker by day, began volunteering with emergency organizations like the American Red Cross when he was 18 and living in Venezuela.
"I like helping people," Gimenez said.
Most of the volunteers are retired, such as CERT captain Richard Brant who moved to Bonita Springs last November. The 66-year-old retired educator from Pittsburgh, who has been a volunteer game warden and is also a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (Wiggins Pass Flotilla 96), says he isn't ready to stop helping.
"I still had this enthusiasm," Brant explains. "Hopefully, we will be called for minor things, but if not, we're prepared."
Copyright 2008 Collier County Publishing Company
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