By TEREASA NIMS
Sunday Times Newspapers
ALLEN PARK — If there is a situation from directing traffic to light fire suppression, the recently graduated Allen Park/Melvindale Community Emergency Response Team is ready to assist.
“They’re prepared,” said Lt. Chris Egan of the first Allen Park/Melvindale
CERT class. “Call on them. They’re ready to go.”
The program, under the direction of Allen Park Police Chief James Wilkewicz and Melvindale Police Chief Chad Hayse, are working together to make both communities safer.
Egan along with Melvindale Cpl. Rolando Hinojosa coordinated the program. Hinojosa oversees the Melvindale CERT program, which has been going for nearly 15 years.
Egan said the CERT members are trained for emergency situations.
Egan said they are trained for “emergency triage to disaster psychology all the way to directing traffic at community events.”
The CERT program educates people about disaster preparedness for events that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations.
CERT members trained for more than 50 hours, beginning in January.
“They can do light fire suppression all the way to directing traffic for fireworks and street festival,” Egan said.
Each member was supplied with a bag containing a hard hat, flashlight,mask, goggles and tools to help dig through debris.
Hinojosa said the members are valuable in the Melvindale community.
“They’ve done great work in our community,” he said.