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Form a community fire and first response team

When the fire brigade and ambulance cannot come, a trained neighbourhood team can stop a small fire spreading and stabilise the injured.

How

1. Take CERT training where it exists (USA). FEMA's basic CERT course covers fire safety, light search and rescue, team organisation and disaster medical operations.
2. Elsewhere, look for equivalent community resilience or first aid courses through local authorities, the fire service or first aid charities.
3. Pool fire equipment: extinguishers (safety-12), fire water reserve and pump (safety-6, water-18), hoses, beaters, shovels and buckets.
4. Agree an alert signal and muster point, and who leads.
5. Practise activation using agreed scenarios, then review the plan, as the UK community toolkit advises.
6. Know your limits: a trained team protects lives and contains small fires; it does not enter burning buildings.

Safety: Never fight a fire you cannot escape from. Get people out first.

Do these first

• safety-12

Sources

1. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). FEMA, accessed 2026-11
2. Community emergency plan toolkit (Cabinet Office guidance adapted by Hampshire and Isle of Wight LRF). Test Valley Borough Council, accessed 2026-11

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