:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/EXUKYY5TPZCFNIJYDMDXDSMEMQ.jpg)
The city of Joliet has graduated its first class of Community Emergency Response Team volunteers.
The 28 CERT volunteers will be available to help at fires, in storm response and in other emergency situations.
Another class starts June 10.
John Lukancic, the city’s director of the Office of Emergency and Disaster Management, introduced 18 of the 28 CERT graduates to the City Council on Tuesday.
“Before they even graduated, we were in the community doing volunteer work,” Lukancic told the council. “We’re dealing with people who want to help.”
The nine-week, 27-hour class provides training in fire suppression, weather spotting, light search-and-rescue and other areas of emergency response.
Fifteen people so far have enrolled in the next class, Lukancic said.
CERT is a national program overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Joliet residents interested in learning more about the program or registering for classes can visit joliet.gov/cert.