Victoria Chames comes from a background in Fire Service and Emergency Medical Service. She served for eight years as a firefighter and officer with Alameda County O.E.S. Fire Department; her teaching experience includes two years as a Fire Training Officer and four years as Emergency Medical Services Officer and Trainer. She also taught Citizens' Disaster Preparedness first aid for two years in a program co-sponsored by City of Berkeley Fire Dept. and Alta Bates Medical Center, and was Director of Fire Med, a California EMSA Continuing Education program for EMT & Paramedic, Alameda County CE Provider #01-0022. During this time she also worked as an Emergency Room Technician for more than 20 years.

In 1996 she created Disaster First Aid© a unique course of critical-essentials-only for citizens and volunteers. The course draws upon her knowledge and experience in real disasters and her work as an Emergency Room caregiver. She began teaching this course for community groups and private schools, and in the process wrote the book Disaster First Aid: What To Do When 911 Can't Come, and later developed the course into a complete Training System.

In 1998 an "Instructor Kit" of user-friendly Teaching Materials and visual aids was added (now in it's 4th Edition) and the course became available and easy to teach by non-professionals as well as EMTs, Paramedics, Firefighters, nurses, CPR Instructors, coaches, and others. In 2010 the book became available worldwide as a downloadable PDF.
 

Disaster First Aid is now being taught in 37 U.S. cities, several Canadian provinces, Haiti, New Delhi India, and Jakarta Indonesia, by schools, corporations, nonprofit organizations, CERT Programs, and small-business independent instructors & training centers.

Credentials: CFSTES Regional Fire Instructor and California EMSA Continuing Education Provider #01-0022, former firefighter, Training Officer, & Emergency Medical Services Officer, and a practicing Hospital ER Medical Technician with more than 25 years of Hospital and Field Experience.