In a Nutshell

The Los Angeles County Fire Department is offering the following schedule of classes in disaster readiness and response:

Sept. 12: Disaster preparedness: introduction to disasters, impact of disasters on infrastructures, role of trained volunteers in disaster response.

Sept. 19: Disaster fire suppression: fire chemistry and basic fire suppression; identifying and reducing potential fire hazards; firefighting resources and techniques; introduction to hazardous materials incidents.

Sept. 26: Disaster Medical Operations I: treatment strategies for life-threatening conditions; principles of triage.

Oct. 3: Disaster Medical Operations II: head-to-toe patient assessments; establishing treatment areas; treatments for burns, lacerations, fractures, sprains and other injuries.

Oct. 10: Disaster psychology and organization: post-disaster emotional environment; Community Emergency Response Team organization: incident command system; Community Emergency Response Team decision-making and documentation.

Oct. 17: Light search and rescue operations and terrorism: search and rescue priorities and resources; size-up techniques and rescuer safety; lifting, cribbing, and victim removal; terrorism: risk and threat analysis; types of terrorism weapons.

Oct. 24: Course review and tabletop exercise.

Oct. 28: Disaster simulation drill.