On 10/18, Blue Lake Rancheria (BLR) Office of Emergency Services (OES) visited the Nor-Rel-Muk Community and Cultural Center in the Trinity Alps to lead the first ever Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training in Trinity County. Over two weekends, around 20 local community members came together to learn practical disaster-response skills, and how volunteers can fit into emergency operations and play a role in keeping their community and neighbors safe. CERT teaches individuals skills that they can depend on in an emergency scenario. In rural areas such as Trinity County, where roughly 16,000 people live across about 3,000 square miles, isolation and terrain can often delay outside assistance during wildfires, floods, or storms. These communities will likely have a long wait before professional help arrives to the scene, and stand to benefit the most from courses like CERT.
On the first day of training, the participants learned some basic first-aid, mass-casualty triage, and how to interface with the Incident Command System (ICS), the standardized approach to command, control, and coordination of an emergency response which is implemented on both the State and Federal level. Later in the course, participants learned how to shut off household gas lines and distinguish safe from unsafe household utilities after an earthquake. Following this, participants learned some fire safety and light search and rescue, taking turns extinguishing live flames with fire extinguishers before learning to mark and clear mock homes as if after an earthquake or wildfire. On the final day of training, participants put everything they learned together for a simulated disaster scenario. The lessons taught in CERT don’t replace what first responders do, but gives people the knowledge to help themselves and their neighbors in the absence of professional help, and to integrate with the larger response system when it arrives.
This Trinity County CERT training was hosted in partnership with the Nor-Rel-Muk Wintu and Tsnungwe Tribes and supported by the Trinity County Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). Funding came through the Cal OES Listos grant program. The Listos California Grant Program supports community-based organizations and federally recognized Tribes throughout California to ensure every Californian, regardless of age, ability, income or language, has access to culturally competent outreach to prepare for earthquakes, floods, wildfires and other hazards.
“Our hope is that if there were to be a large disaster, the Tribes and local communities would be able to lean on each other to provide resources where needed, meeting their members’ and neighbors’ needs.” –Andrew Bogar, BLR Emergency Manager
Originally Published: 11/20/2025