Black Mountain enlists citizens to assist with disaster preparedness
Community Emergency Response Team to train volunteers As Resource For local first responders
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
July 1, 2025
Veteran EMT and firefighter David Billstrom is working with the Black Mountain Fire Department to establish a Community Emergency Response Team, which trains and coordinates citizens to assist first responders in emergency and non-emergency situations. Photo by Fred McCormick
A new program designed to equip local first responders with crucial resources in the event of a disaster will rely on a crew of volunteer citizens.
The Black Mountain Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which reports to the Black Mountain Fire Department, will train and coordinate residents to assist in defined roles when called upon.
Adopted by FEMA in 1993, the National CERT Program allows municipal agencies to sponsor local chapters. While more than 7,000 CERTs are active throughout the country, including approximately 84 in N.C., Black Mountain will be the first in Western N.C., according to David Billstrom, who is coordinating the local program.
A volunteer member of the BMFD with more than 40 years experience as an Emergency Medical Technician and nearly two decades as a firefighter, Billstrom was one of six community members who assisted the town in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene, last September.
Those citizens played key roles in the town’s emergency response command staff, according to Black Mountain Fire Chief John Coffey.
“During the storm, our resources were tapped out,” Coffey said. “We were overwhelmed, and we saw, first-hand, the value of neighbors helping neighbors.”
Billstrom, who coordinated communication for the town’s rescue and recovery efforts, was impressed with the specialized skills of his fellow volunteers.
“In many ways, they had more training and experience with disasters than the police and fire chiefs,” he said. “For example, (City of Marion Planning and Development Director) Heather Cotton, has been to Florida on four or five disasters. She has all the certifications and training, and has worked on command staff at a devastating Helene-level event.”
Relying on residents, many of whom were unable to leave the area due to damaged roads, landslides and widespread loss of power and water, with appropriate skills was a crucial component of the the town’s response, he added.
“Then, out on the streets working in the pods or organizing health clinics, there were similar people with exceptional talents and experience,” Billstrom said. “The dilemma for both Chief Coffey and I was, over and over, complete strangers were walking up to us, describing their backgrounds and saying, ‘how can I help?’”
Unable to vet potential volunteers, the town was forced to turn many away.
“That was a challenge, and it was heartbreaking, frankly,” he said. “Some of those folks I knew, at least tangentially, and I knew enough they were telling the truth. But, I would be asking the chief to take on unlimited liability for the town if they are asked to go do a task, because once we’re in it, we’re in it.”
It was a lesson that continued to resonate with Coffey and Billstrom in the months after the storm. While the establishment of a CERT program was something the Black Mountain fire chief had considered in the past, the performance of the volunteers that assisted the town’s response to the natural disaster reinforced the need.
“The people who will be on this CERT team are the neighbors in neighborhoods and communities in this area,” Coffey said. “We’re going to train them how to be self-reliant and empower other people in those communities to be more resilient, which is key to this whole thing.”
The initiative received support from the Community Foundation of WNC, as the Black Mountain Volunteer Firefighters Association was awarded a grant for $8,450 through the Black Mountain-Swannanoa Valley Endowment Fund. The fire chief tapped Billstrom to help establish the program.
The Black Mountain CERT program, led by BMFD Chief John Coffey, right, and volunteer firefighter David Billstrom, left, will serve as additional resource for Deputy Chief Chris Kuhn and the BMPD. Photo by Fred McCormick
Black Mountain CERT members must be over the age of 18 years old, possess a valid driver’s license and live, work or worship in the BMFD fire district, which includes Montreat and Ridgecrest. Eligible applicants can register through the Black Mountain Firefighters Association website.
Classes, which will be held, Friday, Aug. 1 through Sunday, Aug. 3, at the Black Mountain Fire Station on Montreat Road, are free.
The initial 21-hour course will include training on basic skills, but continued education is required.
“Everything else comes along with consistent training, just like with the fire service,” Coffey said. “Personally, I’m required to do 128 hours per year of training, and each of the other guys have different expectations they have to meet. We train constantly, so (the CERT team) will not be any different.”
The program, according to Billstrom, can accommodate a “wide range” of skill sets.
“If we have someone who wants to make food, there is a place for them,” he said. “If we have someone who wants to help with search and rescue and carry-outs in rugged conditions in Montreat, there is a place for them, too. The idea is to tap the ‘super powers’ of these volunteers, and they do what they are good at and interested in.”
Members of CERT will be issued a radio through which they can communicate with the department, and also utilized in non-emergency situations, according to Billstrom.
“We looked at other CERT teams, and one lesson from the ones that have thrived through the years is that they need to be deployed often,” he said. “This isn’t just get trained and wait for the next emergency, this helping out at the parade, festivals and perhaps, a large wildland fire. We’ll be looking for opportunities to deploy them, so they can use what they learn.”
One objective is to establish a multi-use resource for local first responders.
“We’re not just building a team, we’re building a safer community,” Coffey said. “We’re building resiliency and fire safety, especially when we need those things the most. That’s the bigger picture.”
Each member of the CERT team will be trained on how to prepare themselves and their families for a disaster, and ready themselves to assist immediate neighbors. Specialties, including backcountry search and rescue, communications and medical skills, can be incorporated into the team’s response.
“This community is filled with people who worked in a camp, or guided on a river, and, at one time, had a wilderness first responder certification,” Billstrom said. “So, we know they have the training, we know they have good judgement and common sense, and yet, in N.C.’s EMS system, the wilderness first responder has no status. Those are the right people to hike in when somebody needs help.”
Harnessing the skills and altruism of local residents to serve the community is a long-term aspiration, according to the fire chief.
“This will eventually become part of the culture of this community,” Coffey. “We want to harness that culture to where the children of this community can see their parents or older siblings participating, and think this is what we’re supposed to do in a community.”