The following notes are directly from the CERT book. Any inaccuracies are the fault of the note taker.

What professional responders will do:

There were several measures that you can expect professional responders to take when they arrive at the scene of a terrorist incident.

The first step that the professional responders will take when they arrived at the scene is to conduct a thorough size up. They will follow steps similar to those that CERT takes to determine:

• What is going on?
• How bad the situation is and how much worse it could get
• What measures can be taken to control the incident safely
• What resources will be needed?

CERTs can expect professional responders to treat terrorist incidents must the same as hazardous material incident. As such, the next step that they will take is to establish three incident zones to minimize the risk of spreading contamination from the incident site.

• The hot zone includes the incident scene and the contaminated area around the scene. If the incident is outdoors, the hot zone will spread downward, taking wind speed into consideration.
• The warm zone upwind (and upstream if the contaminant is waterborne) from the hot zone and is used to isolate victims during decontamination. It is called the warm zone because the evacuees can carry or spread of containment into this area. Professional responders will hold those who require decontamination in the warm zone and tell decontamination is complete so that the contaminants do not spread.
• The cold zone is located upwind and beyond the warm zone. Those who are not contaminated or who have been decontaminated will be evacuated to the call zone and kept there until the professional responders authorize them to leave.

Unit summary:

Terrorism may be perpetrated by foreign and domestic individuals or groups. Terrorist attack to:

• Intimidate the government of civilian population
• Further their objectives

When terrorist attack, their goals are to: create mass casualties

• Disrupt critical resources, vital services, and the economy
• Cause fear

The acronym CBRNE comes to remember the types of weapons that terrorists might be expected to use: chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, high – yield explosives.

There are a range of environmental and physical indicators of terrorist attacks. Paying attention to what is not present in the environment that should be as important as what is present and should not be.

CERT members should treat possible terrorist incidents as saying they would hazmat incidents – as a stop sign. If they observe indicators of a possible terrorist attack they should:

• Not touch it!
• Move away from the object or area
• Report to the authorities immediately

Cert help limit their exposure to the harmful effects of terrorist weapons by:

• Moving quickly to limit their exposure time
• Evacuating the area as quickly as possible; be sure to move perpendicular to the upwind of an airborne flow, and upstream if contaminates are waterborne.
• Is protection of the sturdy building and shielding, going inside his containment is outside and going outside if containment is inside. If the event includes retroactive fallout, is important to go quickly deep inside the building for protection.
• Safely decontaminating themselves when necessary
• CERT members should take immediate action to protect themselves and, if exposed, follow basic decontamination procedures immediately. Because the safety of CERT members is the number one priority, certain members should not attempt to treat anyone who has been contaminated or before the decontamination procedures for the terrorist incident scenes are also crime scenes. Certain members should avoid taking any action that may disturb potential evidence.