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South Salt Lake CERT Newsletter

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Sunset CERT Teams Aid Search for Missing Child

On November 22, 2007, a child was reported missing in Sunset, Utah. The Sunset Police Department searched for the child for three hours.  At 9 p.m. that evening, the Sunset CERT teams were called upon to help search the city.  The CERT members responded to the call immediately. 

When the CERT members arrived at the command center, Assistant Chief Weston and Police Sergeant Arbogast were there to give directions to the CERT teams. Each team was given a briefing, a picture of the child, and an area in the city to search.  With this information, teams of two left the command center, and began to knock on doors in their assigned area of the city. 

Within about ten to fifteen minutes, the child was found unharmed by one of the CERT teams. Congratulations to the Sunset CERT teams and another example of how the CERT team can serve in a community!

North Salt Lake Hires New Emergency Manager

North Salt Lake has hired Ryan Frandsen as the new city part-time Emergency Manager. Currently, Ryan is a Captain and is working at Station 82 in North Salt Lake, wherethe city offices are located. Ryan has lived in NSL for 10 years, is married and has two children.  He works full-time for the South Davis Metro Fire Agency and has been with them for eight years, six of those years as a paramedic.  Last year, Ryan was awarded the Paramedic of the Year Award for the State of Utah.  He has an Associates of Fire Science; a Bachelor’s of Emergency Medical Services degree and is about 2/3 done with his MBA Degree.

Ryan’s main priority as Emergency Manager for the city is to create an emergency plan for the city to outline how it will handle a large scale disaster within NSL city limits. He is also working on how to prepare the city and its citizens for this type of disaster and will accomplish this, in part, through training exercises with different volunteer agencies and the city administration personnel.

Another priority Ryan will be working on is coordinating and improving the efforts of different volunteer services, including the Citizen Corps programs: CERT, Neighborhood Watch, Medical Reserve Corps and also the affiliated Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES).  In the near future, he will be letting citizens know how they can become involved.

Ryan plans on updating the city web site so that it will be a citizen’s one-stop place for emergency preparedness needs. He says whether it is something to prepare yourself, your home, neighborhood, or help the city, it will be on there.  He is planning to list everything from 72-hour kits to needed food supplies, financial preparedness, and volunteering for Neighborhood Watch duties. Several emergency preparedness fairs are also in the planning stages and Ryan is planning to have presentations at each fair.  He will also be available to talk to groups about emergency preparedness.

Ryan is also very busy with his work; he says he will be available 24/7 to help the city through any emergency.

A South Davis County Emergency Preparedness Fair will be held May 10 at Viewmont High School for residents of North Salt Lake, Bountiful, Woods Cross, West Bountiful and Centerville.  Residents of other cities are also invited.

CERT Training Pays Off in North Salt Lake Fire

John Blackham, North Salt Lake resident, tells how he reacted because of his CERT training when a spent fire work landed in a large city trash container on his rear deck and threatened two cans containing gasoline for his lawn mower during the evening of July 4th, 2007 …

In his own words –

“We had a fire tonight that damaged our deck (see attached pictures). Apparently, a spent firework caught the contents of our city garbage can on fire and then caught our deck and a gas can (for our lawnmower) on fire.  I was able to keep the entire deck from going up with the hose until the fire department arrived and put out the gasoline fire with foam.

I can attest that CERT training works!  That training started running through my mind the second I saw the flames.  I knew I had 30 seconds or less before things got out of control. I told my wife to call 911 NOW and tell them we have a deck fire with possible gas cans involved. I looked for our fire extinguisher in a closet for 3-5 seconds, but couldn't find it (it had been moved to the other closet).

I ran out of the front door, grabbed a hose, turned on the water full blast. Unfortunately, the hose only reached half way around house.   I dropped the hose at full run and got to the deck.  I spent one second evaluating whether I could get around the fire safely to the back yard hose.  It looked safe. I ran around fire to the backyard, disconnected the sprinkler, turned the water on full, and started attacking the 12-foot flames. The gas can was on fire and spraying the gas only spread the flames, so I focused on the wooden deck and kept the fire from spreading. (See Fire 1 and Fire 2 ) Most of the damage was sustained by the stairs. The gasoline cans were located below the stairs.

I knocked down fire enough to pull another gas can away from the area (I didn't want it going up too). (See Fire 3 ) This photo shows one of the red melted gasoline cans to the right of the melted garbage can.

My neighbor, Ron Gordon, jumped two fences with his fire extinguisher and knocked down gas fire some, but his extinguisher was empty in five seconds.  He turned off my front hose water so that I had full pressure at the back hose.

Firemen arrived after 10-12 minutes with their BIG hose (after five more minutes), but all it did was spread the gasoline flames.  I requested foam and after two or three minutes more, they had their foam machine going and the fire was out in seconds. (See Fire4)

The city garbage cans are very flammable. (See Fire 5 ) This photo shows what is left of the trash can. One wheel is visible on the right of the gray plastic mass. The white foam was used by firemen to extinguish the flames.  The firemen pulled allof the trash out of the can to expose any remaining hot spots.

I was very lucky it didn't happen when we were asleep!  My wife said both smoke alarms went off.   She exited the front door with two cats in arms, but all our cats ran back and hid in the house, even though my wife left the front door wide open.  I could hear one cat on the deck meowing like crazy and trying to get in the house while I was busy spraying the fire.  Everyone is OK.

The city is charging me $60 for a new garbage can and I hope I get it soon - today is our trash pickup day.  I'm also busy calling to get repair bids.” (See Fire 6)