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With geologists expecting a large-scale earthquake in the Bay Area by 2030, the city is offering people who live and work in Berkeley free emergency preparedness classes in September and October. 

“We know another disaster will happen,” said firefighter paramedic Sam Hoffman, one of the instructors. “Our jobs as emergency responders are to prepare everyone for the emergency.” 

The United States Geological Survey has concluded that there is a 70 percent chance of a major earthquake hitting the Bay Area by 2030 and a 32 percent chance of an earthquake along the Hayward fault line which runs through Berkeley. 

Berkeley officials also warn that a wildfire like the hills fire of 1991, landslide, toxic spill, flood or act of terrorism are additional possibilities. 

To prepare citizens, the city is offering courses in personal preparedness, first aid, search and rescue, disaster mental health, shelter operations, fire suppression and earthquake retrofitting. 

Participants will learn basic skills like setting splints, operating a fire extinguisher and “cribbing,” or using planks of wood as leverage to lift large objects off trapped victims.  

“It can be done by an 80-pound woman,” said Dory Ehrlich, community emergency response training coordinator for the city. 

Participants will also learn how to comfort the victims of disaster and strengthen their homes by installing expansion and epoxy bolts, among other items. 

Hoffman said, in the event of a major disaster, it usually takes about three days for outside agencies to descend on a city and help in relief efforts. That means citizens can be on their own for 72 hours and need to be prepared. 

The city began offering courses in 1989 after the Loma Prieta earthquake, Ehrlich said, and the 1991 hills fire renewed interest. 

But funding dried up in the mid-1990s before a citizens’ advisory group, the Disaster Council, pushed the city to restart the program, according to Ehrlich. 

The courses are funded by the fire department and run through the department’s office of emergency services. The city will train 10 firefighters as new instructors Monday, bringing the total number of fire department instructors to 12. 

Berkeley contracts with the American Red Cross to teach the shelter operations class and with the Berkeley nonprofit Building Education Center to run the earthquake retrofitting course. 

The courses are offered several times a year. 

The classes are free and open to anyone 18 and older who lives or works in Berkeley. All classes are scheduled at the Fire Department Training Center, 997 Cedar St., except the Earthquake Retrofitting course, which will take place at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 

For more information or to register call the Office of Emergency Services at 981-5605, or register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html.