Disaster Preparedness Trainings

Build your emergency skills by attending trainings with Berkeley Ready.

To receive alerts when new courses are posted, follow the Berkeley Ready Eventbrite page. Sign up for the Berkeley Ready newsletter for monthly email updates about disaster readiness classes and events.

Prepare your household with Berkeley Ready trainings

In a major disaster, government resources may take days to arrive. By learning basic skills, communities can stay safer and more self-reliant.

Berkeley Ready trainings offer quick, practical tips to help you take action right away. Trainings are interactive and designed by experts from Berkeley’s Fire Department, Office of Emergency Services, and Public Health Division.

Find upcoming classes on Eventbrite and the City event calendar. Trainings are offered online and at locations around Berkeley, as staffing allows, and can be taken in any order. In-person times and locations may change.

Training descriptions:

Six Critical Steps to Disaster Preparedness

• Learn the easiest, most cost-effective ways to prepare for disasters in Berkeley and make a basic household disaster plan.
• Resources to prepare at home:
  • Six Critical Steps Disaster Worksheet

Evacuation Planning and Go-Bags

• Decide where you will go if you need to leave your home or Berkeley. Learn from emergency officials how to pack your go bag with critical items to add for your particular situation and needs.

Household Fire Weather Planning

• This class will help Berkeley hills residents plan for extreme fire weather. When will you leave, where will you go, and how will you get there?
• Resources to prepare at home:
  • Household Fire Weather Planning Tool
  • Wildfire Evacuation Checklist
  • Wildfire Evacuation Checklist Large Font

Advance your skills with Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainings

If you have taken the Berkeley Ready curriculum and you have the time to continue to build your emergency skills, take CERT trainings.

CERT is a national program and curriculum supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). There are CERT programs in all 50 states, and each one is unique to its community.

In Berkeley, the CERT curriculum is seven units, and each training is around three or four hours. Units 3, 4, 6, and 7 involve some physical exertion. Most CERT trainings involve some equipment and take place at the Fire Department Division of Training at 997 Cedar. The Units are:

• Unit 1: Disaster Preparedness covers the types of disasters that can happen in Berkeley and how to get ready for them.
• Unit 2: CERT Organization covers how to organize teams during an emergency and gather important information safely.
• Unit 3: Disaster Medical Operations I covers how to treat life-threatening conditions like blocked airways, bleeding, and shock. Includes basic first aid for injuries like sprains and broken bones.
• Unit 4: Disaster Medical Operations II builds on Unit 3 by learning how to assess injuries, treat burns, and handle bites, stings, and nosebleeds. Prerequisites: Unit 3
• Unit 5: Disaster Mental Health covers how to help survivors, civilian responders, and others cope with extreme stress after a disaster.  
• Unit 6: Fire Safety and Utilities covers how to prevent fires, safely turn off utilities, and practice using a fire extinguisher.
• Unit 7: Light Search and Rescue provides hands-on experience using basic tools to search for and rescue people safely. Prerequisites: Unit 3 and Unit 4

Berkeley CERT materials can be requested by emailing oes@berkeleyca.gov. This material is available in alternative formats upon request. 

Connect with the fire department

Visit the Fire Stations page for information about fire station visits, presentations for youth, and firefighter visits to your neighborhood or organization’s event. Visits may need to be cancelled at the last moment if station personnel have to respond to an emergency.

Training guidelines and accessibility information

To ensure all courses are safe and open to everyone, please:

1. Register in advance.
2. Cancel at least three days in advance, if needed. Failure to cancel registration may result in not being able to take future trainings.
3. Follow all course instructions, including prerequisites.
4. Avoid scented products at in-person events.

For ADA assistance with training registration, please email oes@berkeleyca.gov.

To request a disability-related accommodation(s) to participate in a training, please contact the Disability Services Specialist at 981-6418 (V) or 981-6347 (TDD) at least three business days before the training date.