West Hollywood Hosts Free LA County Fire CERT Disaster Training at Plummer Park Across Seven September Sessions

The Los Angeles County Fire Department brings free Community Emergency Response Team training to Plummer Park's Great Hall for seven evenings, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays from September 1 through September 22. Registration is open now, participants must be 16 or older, and a certificate requires attending every session.

When disaster strikes, will you know what to do? The City of West Hollywood is letting the public know that the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Community Emergency Response Team, known as CERT, is presenting CERT Training this September.

West Hollywood CERT Training is free and will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, September 1, 3, 8, 10, 15, 17, and 22, 2026, at Plummer Park's Great Hall, located at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard. Space is limited and expected to fill quickly. Participants must register in advance and attend all sessions to receive a certificate of completion. Registration is open now on the Los Angeles County Fire Department's CERT training page.

Following a disaster, police, fire, and medical professionals may not be able to meet the immediate demand for emergency medical attention. Residents and neighbors may need to rely upon one another to help with immediate life-saving needs. CERT Training was developed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide basic fire safety and life-saving skills.

What the Seven Sessions Cover

CERT Training participants will learn valuable survival skills, including disaster preparedness, terrorism, disaster fire suppression, disaster psychology, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, team organization, and drill simulation, which can be vital in the immediate aftermath of a major disaster.

The schedule runs seven sessions of three hours each, or 21 hours of instruction spread across four calendar weeks. The series opens on Tuesday, September 1 and closes on Tuesday, September 22, with no session on the final Thursday. Because a certificate of completion requires attendance at every session, the calendar is effectively the admission requirement: a single missed evening ends the certificate, not the training.

The curriculum is the standard FEMA model, which trains civilians to be useful in the window before professional responders arrive rather than to replace them. Light search and rescue and disaster medical operations are the practical core; disaster psychology is the part most participants do not expect and most instructors say matters most.

How to Register and Where to Get Help

Registration is handled by the Los Angeles County Fire Department rather than the city, and is open now on the department's CERT Basic Training listing. The listing is titled CERT Basic Training Course, West Hollywood, and runs under the department's LACoFD CERT program. Participants must be 16 years of age or older and must complete the entire course to receive a certificate of completion.

The Fire Department listing also carries a condition the city's announcement does not mention: a minimum of 10 participants is required to hold the class, and the department reserves the right to cancel it for insufficient interest. Sessions meet at Plummer Park's Great Hall Room, 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90046.

For more information, contact the city's Public Safety Division at (323) 848-6414 or at [email protected]. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, dial 711 or 1-800-735-2929 (TTY) or 1-800-735-2922 (voice) for California Relay Service (CRS) assistance.

For up-to-date information about City of West Hollywood news and events, follow @wehocity on social media, sign up for news updates at weho.org/email, and visit the City's calendar of meetings and events at weho.org/calendar. West Hollywood City Hall is open for walk-in services at public counters or by appointment by visiting weho.org/appointments. City Hall services are accessible by phone at (323) 848-6400 and via website at weho.org. Receive text updates by texting "WeHo" to (323) 848-5000.

Twenty-one hours is a real commitment, and the attendance rule is the part people skim past: miss one Tuesday and the certificate is gone. Block all seven nights before you register, not after. Here is the wrinkle the city's announcement leaves out. LA County Fire needs at least 10 signups or it can cancel the class outright, so registering early is not only about getting a seat, it is about whether the class happens at all.

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