Your decision to remain in the case of a wildfire should be predicated on a commitment to obtain the necessary information to make your place as fire safe as possible. You should also recognize that by staying you are volunteering to become a firefighter--you will certainly be running the risks of a firefighter.

It behooves you, therefore, to get at least some basic training. Firefighting is a technical subject, but there are books on firefighting technique. The Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 69 in Topanga sponsors a "call firefighter" team of volunteers who undergo formal training as firefighters.

T-CEP has developed a training program for its volunteers. Some of those courses are available at minimum cost to the public. These include Red Cross certified first aid and CPR (for adults and children) as well as a series of Red Cross disaster-related courses such as Damage Assessment and Living With Earthquakes.

Two T-CEP members recently attended a week-long course to become certified instructors for the national Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. This course is taught as a series of seven two-to-three-hour-long classes. They are conducted over a crowded weekend or on seven consecutive Thursday evenings, for example. The CERT program deals with all forms of disaster, disaster psychology, elementary first aid and introductory urban search and rescue. It is an excellent overview and highly recommended for personal information or as a basis for volunteering with another organization.