Disaster First Aid is a course of simple learning and skills that have the power and absolute potential to save millions of lives that in the past and present are lost needlessly because the help they need first may be simple and easy but no one there knows what to do. These injured people - the 40% of the savable victims of wars, terrorist acts, and earthquakes - died, and will die, while waiting for help to come.

Disaster First Aid is stripped-down to the most essential information and actions for the most-critical correctible conditions that happen in multi-casualty and mass-casualty emergencies. EVERY citizen from age 12 to 14 and older should know at least this much, so that they have a choice to be a part of the help instead of the helpless.

This course and training system were written by an experienced Adult Education Teacher and Emergency Medical caregiver, former Firefighter, Fire Training Officer, Emergency Medical Services Officer, and hospital E.R. Emergency Medical Technician with more than 25 years of hospital and field experience.

This is NOT "Standard First Aid."

Most courses that call themselves "disaster" first aid are actually the same-old Standard first aid with a disaster "spin" added on.

Those courses will not be much help in a large-scale disaster, because they don't include Rapid Triage, and they are all built upon the assumption that ambulance or Emergency Room services will be available quickly. For the great majority of us, that will be impossible in a disaster.

Disaster First Aid covers the injuries and conditions expected to occur in large numbers in a severe medical emergency such as major earthquake, terrorist attack, massive explosion, or structure collapse. This DFA course focuses on the critical first-actions that are necessary to save lives and prevent the worsening of injury in the first minutes and hours, the time when the most lives are either saved or lost.

The information and actions in this course follow the standard practices and protocols of California Public Safety agencies such as Police, Fire, and Paramedic, adapted to the citizen's level of ability and resources.

Disaster First Aid teaches you a simple form of Rapid Triage based on the essentials of *S.T.A.R.T. triage adapted for citizens, and the most essential life-saving and limb-saving critical first-action skills. These can be done by the average person, but they must be done soon, within the first minutes of “the Golden Hour.”

In DFA everything is presented in a clear logical way, in plain-language, with plenty of hands-on practice in a no-stress group learning environment.

Disaster First Aid is designed to be practical useful, and accessible to as many people as possible. You absolutely can do a great service with just this essential knowledge, with whatever materials you find nearby, and with your own good common sense.

see also: Anyone Can Save Lives

and Why isn't "Standard" First Aid Enough?