TRRIIAANNGGLLEE OOFF LLIIFFEE
(EARTHQUAKES)
This is most definitely worth reading.
Amazing when you think what we were
taught to do when we were children. How
wrong they were!!
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE
ON THE "TRIANGLE OF LIFE",
Edited by Larry Linn for MAA Safety
Committee brief on 4/13/04.
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue
Chief and Disaster Manager of the American
Rescue Team International (ARTI), the
world's most experienced rescue team. The
information in this article will save lives in an
earthquake.
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
for two years. I have worked at Every major
disaster in the world since 1985, except for
simultaneous disasters.
In 1996 we made a film, which proved my
survival methodology to be correct. The
Turkish Federal Government, City of
Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case
Productions and ARTI cooperated to film
this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a
school and a home with 20 mannequins
inside. Ten mannequins did "duck and
cover," and ten mannequins I used in my
"triangle of life" survival method. After the
simulated earthquake collapse we crawled
through the rubble and entered the building
to film and document the results. The film, in
which I practiced my survival techniques
under directly observable, scientific
conditions, relevant to building collapse,
showed there would have been zero percent
survival for those doing duck and cover.
There would likely have been 100 percent
survivability for people using my method of
the "triangle of life."
This film has been seen by millions of
viewers on television in Turkey And the rest
of Europe, and it was seen in the USA,
Canada and Latin America on the TV
program Real TV.
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.
TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply "ducks and
covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE, are
crushed to death. People who get under
objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl
up in the foetal 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 avoid next to it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of
construction to be in during an earthquake.
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 and you cannot
easily escape by getting out the door or
window, then lie down and curl up in the
foetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6) Most everyone 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 -
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 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.
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.
Print this off and post it on the back of your
door...
©2004 DOUG COPP
---------------------------------
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