Third national challenge for CERTs kicks off

Teams have been established at almost every union council throughout province

LAHORE: The three-day third National Challenge for Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) kick-started at the Emergency Services Academy on Monday.

The CERTs have been established at almost every union council throughout the province. These teams comprised volunteers. Reportedly, a few of these teams are very active while others are not.

The Punjab Emergency Service (PES) Rescue 1122 initiated the challenge in 2017 to enhance capacity building and motivate these volunteers. As part of the third competition, competitions were held at the local level. The best teams of each district have moved forward to headquarters to participate in the challenge. A total of 39 teams from all over the country are participating in the challenge.

Community Safety and Information Head Deeba Shahnaz said that in the three-day challenge, senior officers of Rescue Headquarters and Emergency Services Academy would assess, analyse and evaluate Community Action for Disaster Response (CADRE) skills of all participating teams under the supervision of Exercise Controller Muhammad Ahsan.

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She informed the participants of the CERTS that teams from the provincial capital, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Jhang, Nankana Sahib, Sialkot, Okara, Chiniot, Sahiwal, Narowal, Hafizabad, TT Singh, Kasur, Sialkot Warden, University of Lahore and Aga Khan Agency for Humanitarian (AGAH) participated on the first day. The teams of the remaining districts of the province will participate on the second and third day of the event respectively.

An officer told The Express Tribune that this challenge was based on a series of emergency scenarios to simulate flood and earthquake disasters followed by fire emergencies and multiple casualty incidents. Each CERT will participate in all three phases of the exercise as following: 10 Minutes Pre-Operation Phase, 1 hour 15 minutes Operation Phase, 5 Minutes Post Operation Phase. The exercise shall cover following areas, preparation, activation and mobilisation of team (response), incident command management, management of mass causality incident, light search and rescue including structure marking, response to fire and water emergency, dead body management, deactivation and debriefing and assistance to professional responders when needed.

The participants will also be evaluated for preparing for a response (Preparation Phase). In the management of mass casualties incident category, they will be evaluated for incident command, cordon off and community quick response sorting technique (Triage).

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In basic life support and first aid category, CPR, management of foreign body airway obstructions, bleeding control and treatment of shock, wound management and splinting and shifting will be evaluated. In the dead body management category, handling of dead bodies, identification of dead bodies using photography and tagging will be looked into.

In the fire emergency category, the Use of Fire Extinguisher and Bucket Brigade Drill will be evaluated. In water emergencies, basic rescue knots and improvised floating devices and shallow water crossing skills will be assessed.

The winner community volunteer teams of inter union council competition participated in the national event with the complete turnout and district flag assigned to the districts. The competition will close on December 4, 2019.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2019.