First Responder PPE, NYC Experts Helping Haiti
As Scott Health & Safety announced it has donated more than $600,000 worth of respiratory and other equipment, New York City's mayor said 12 employees with emergency response expertise are leaving June 7 for Port-au-Prince to help in building a local Community Emergency Response Team program.
Donations to Haiti following its Jan. 12 earthquake have not ended, one indication of how much infrastructure was destroyed and how much capability remains to be rebuilt. Scott Health & Safety announced Monday that it has donated more than $600,000 worth of PPE to Haitian first responders, replacing supplies that were destroyed and filling urgent needs. And New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced 12 members of the NYC Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will leave June 7 for Port-au-Prince to help in building a local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program there.
Scott, based in Monroe, N.C., has made its donations of respiratory equipment, hard hats, eyewear, SCBAs, gas detection equipment, and protective masks in partnership with Protect the Force and other safety equipment providers to fire departments, the national power company Electricité d'Haïti, hospitals, and clinics. "Scott is glad to be a part of this effort to restore important public safety services to Haiti and to help keep their first responders safe after the devastating earthquake," said Trent Smith, VP of sales, Americas at Scott Health & Safety.
Losing equipment in the earthquake had prevented the only fire station in Port-au-Prince from operating effectively, even as fire risk increased because displaced people have depended on cooking fires, according to the company.
The NYC contingent will be in Haiti for two weeks and will train as many as 400 people in fire safety, first aid, triage, crowd control strategies, light search and rescue, public health, water safety, and disaster psychology, Bloomberg announced with OEM Commissioner Joseph Bruno and Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano.
"This will be the first time New York City has ever taught its CERT program outside of the United States and the first time that such a program has been brought to Haiti," Bloomberg said. "President Clinton, in his role as the UN's Special Envoy to Haiti, and former FEMA Director James Lee Witt recommended our program to the Haitian government which in turn asked our instructors to lead the first CERT classes in Haiti. We are honored to do it."