Birth of CERT in Los Angeles Chief Frank Borden of the Los Angeles Fire Department launched a pilot program in 1986 to train local volunteers in fire suppression, search and rescue, and first aid. The success of that small team proved the model worked—and after the Whittier Narrows Earthquake in 1987, the city expanded the program rapidly.
By the early 1990s, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) adopted the CERT model and rolled it out nationwide. Today, there are over 2,700 CERT programs across the U.S., with more than 600,000 trained volunteers. CERT teams now respond to all kinds of emergencies—from hurricanes and wildfires to public events and missing person searches.