PLEASE PAY ATTENTION AND FORWARD THIS INFORMATION FAR AND WIDE!
WHY HAVE WE NOT BEEN TOLD THESE THINGS SOONER??????
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE "TRIANGLE OF
LIFE",
Omega-News: TRIANGLE OF LIFE - Earthquake Safety Information
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/308957/
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
(UNX051 -UNIENET) 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. 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.