FWIW:
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EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE
"TRIANGLE OF LIFE",
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings,
worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams
in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from
many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation
(UNX051 -UNIENET) for two years. I have worked at every major
disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
The first building I ever crawled inside of
was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child
was under their desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of
their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their
desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the
children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the
children were told to hide under something.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the
weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside
crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This
space is what I call the" triangle of life". The larger the object, the
stronger, the less it will compact. The less
the object compacts, the larger the void, the
greater the probability that the person who is using this void for
safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings,
on television, count the "triangles" you see formed. They are everywhere.
It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building. They are
everywhere. I trained the Fire Department of Trujillo (population
750,000) in how to survive, take care of their families, and to rescue
others in earthquakes.
The chief of rescue in the Trujillo Fire Department is a professor at Trujillo
University. He accompanied me everywhere. He gave personal testimony:
"My name is Roberto Rosales. I am Chief of Rescue in Trujillo. When I was
11 years old, I was trapped inside of a collapsed building. My entrapment
occurred during the earthquake of 1972 that killed 70,000 people. I survived
in the "triangle of life" that existed next to my brother's motorcycle. My
friends who got under the bed and under desks were crushed to death [he
gives more details, names, addresses etc.]...I am the living
example of the "triangle of life". My dead friends are the example of
"duck and cover".
TIPS DOUG COPP PROVIDES:
1) Everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN
BUILDINGS COLLAPSE is crushed to death -- Every time, without
exception. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are always
crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies all naturally often
curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It
is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a
smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large
bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it. 3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of
construction to be in during an earthquake. The reason is simple:
the wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the
wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created.
Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick
buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many
injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an
earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist
around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in
earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every
room, telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the
bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens while you are
watching television and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door
or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a
sofa, or large chair.
6) Everybody who gets under a doorway when
buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and
the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the
ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in
half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a
different "moment of frequency" (they swing separately from the
main part of the building).The stairs and remainder of the
building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of
the stairs takes place.
The people who get on stairs before they fail
are chopped up by the stair treads. They are horribly mutilated.
Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs.
The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if
the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse
later when overloaded by screaming, fleeing people. They should
always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is
not damaged.
8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or
Outside Of Them If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of
the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from
the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that
your escape route will be blocked;
9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed
when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their
vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks
of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake
all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could
have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their
vehicles, says the author. Everyone killed would have survived if
they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to
them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them,
except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them
10) I discovered, while crawling inside of
collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that
paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of
paper.
This is a FWIW to you. I don't know because it seems to contradict the usual advice.
Earthquakes---Wrong things to do?!?
by patio34 0 Replies latest social current
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patio34