Roll Off Your Bed--The Triangle Of Life

You want to survive an earthquake so you can spend your life savings on Interferon and doctors. no?



Really good guidelines for disaster (natural or man-made) survival in and out of
buildings.  Hope no-one ever has to use it, but at least now you know.
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE: 'TRIANGLE OF LIFE'
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.

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.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during
the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its 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.

DISASTER 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 fetal position.  You
should too! 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. Wood is
flexible and moves with force.  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 a disaster occurs, simply roll off the
bed. A safe void will exist around the bed.


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 fetal 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 door jamb falls forward or backward
you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jamb 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 move 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. 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. 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, tornado or hurricane and crushes their vehicles. They could 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.

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 used 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 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.'

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
- Chuang Tse

[comeagain]

That was a good one ty for posting.

ca

[mremeet]

That was a really interesting read, thanks for posting. Not sure if it's all true, but it sounds reasonable (differences between American/Euro to Mexican/Turkish construction standards aside). Plus it gives a new spin on the old term "triangle of life." ;-)  Here's a little more info on it:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/triangle.asp

[desrt]

http://www2.****.org

American Red Cross rebuttal to Doug Copp

[scratchinghead]

oh well. shows what I know.

[moahunter]

It is food for thought though - it would not be the first time experts are wrong, and what we learned at school to be worng. And even the experts seem to refer to aspects being true, like the weakness of doors, and the possibility of void spaces. If a really really big quake hit, are we so sure that North American standards will prevent massive collapses? The jury is out on that one until it happens (which hopefully it won't, at least in our lifetimes).