Important survival info. Earthquake Safety: The Triangle of Life

A friend of mine sent me this email, and the information in it is so vitally life saving I want to pass it on to as many people as possible.

Also check this link en.wikipedia.org...
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 in anearthquake.
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, unnecessa! ry 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 shap! e, you will see,
in a collapsed building.
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 fetal position.
You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survivalinstinct.
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. 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 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 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 Nimit! z 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.
Spread the word and save someone's life... The Entire world is
experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!
'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly'
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 tech! niques under
directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building collapse,
showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck

and cover.

[edit on 13-7-2010 by wcitizen]

[edit on 13-7-2010 by wcitizen]

I don't know how to edit the above post to correct the typos - any advice would be welcome!

Thanks.

EDIT.

OK. Success. I found the 'edit' button and corrected the typos!

[edit on 13-7-2010 by wcitizen]

[edit on 13-7-2010 by wcitizen]

Very good advice and contrary to what the general public are led to believe, although it does make a lot of sense.

Having said that, I have no idea why I read the whole thing, I live in England, so it's not exactly on the top of my "Things that could kill me" list. In fact, it's probably at the bottom, along with being crushed by a herd of elephants or being attacked by pygmy cannibals

Hit the "edit" button on the top, right of the Original Post (OP), the one at the top.

After the Haiti earthquake, where thousands were stuck in the rubble and likely dehydrated or starved to death in their own tombs, I wonder if a quick death is better than being stuck in the dark screaming for days until you die.

But it depends where I am. If it happens in America, there would be a lot more search & rescue teams than a third-world country.

thats all great info.

my only issue is at the end when its discussing the experiment, it says nobody doing the "duck and cover" survived.

but then it doesnt tell us how many doing the other techniques survived, for all we know they died too.

kind of leaves me feeling like there isn't much one can do at all in these types of situations

Not saying that there isn't something to the triangle of life but there's just something that doesn't seem right about it to me.

One of the things that has to be taken into account is the amount of damage caused by the quake and the type of construction.

In this pic you can see that all this quake did was bring down the light fixtures overhead.

Interior Damage, Coalinga Junior High School

Anyone under the tables would be fine but if someone had been crouched beside the tables they would have been seriously hurt or maybe even killed, depending on what those fixtures weigh.

So if the whole roof comes down being under a table or bed would be a bad idea but if it doesn't and you just have 10 or 20 lb objects coming down being out in the open may be worse. The problem is knowing which it's going to be.

Well if you live in an area that gets earthquakes chances are your building is made to stand up to one. I remember the northridge earthquake in california and all the damage it caused, but keep in mind one of the most populated areas in california got hit with a big earthquake and only 61 died from it. The bigger problems are not the earthquake but the indirect problems it causes. Like the valley fever we had afterwards and all the fires that it caused from the gas lines getting damaged durring it.
Things like what happened in Haiti were a result of poor planning that if looked into you would find that those structures were not safe enough to let a dog crap in them let alone stand up to a major quake.
Here in california many of the walls are made with simple wood, drywall and insulation that stiff is not going to "crush" anyone. Same with the roof it is wood with some shingles and insulation, again not to dangerous. Where people get in trouble is multi level structures and if a quake hits it hard enough to the point of collapse you are screwed and it is all up to luck. That "triangle of life" does not mean crap if the floor underyou collapses and the floor above you crashes down on you.

I think what he's talking about are the odds. Using his method, you could die too but your odds of surviving are greatly improved over what people have been told or might naturally think to do...as in get under something.

reply to post by zaiger


What he said, if you live in a 3rd world country don't bother the duck and cover or any measures for survival, you gonna die anyway!
But in most modern countries the building standards are waay higher than are really needed.
I have worked a lot of construction in Kalifornia and what I first thought of as cheap building practices actually is for the earthquake and other disaster safety measures.
Heck in Kalifornia when earthquakes happen we hit the snooze button and sleep another 8 minutes.
The only thing I think I will ever worry about in an earthquake is a fissure or sinkhole opening.

Since someone mentioned this thread in a newer thread here on ATS, I thought I'd jump in.

I agree that a lot of Doug's information makes sense. But I think it's important to note that the Red Cross responded to his article and contradicted a lot of what he said.

Red Cross Response

Fantastic Post! I want to flag this post because I too saw a documentary on the Sichuan earthquake where a disaster recovery specialist was commenting on how all the children were told to get under their desks and they were all crushed to death because they got under their desks, instead of getting next to their desk and creating "a triangle of life" like a fulcrum and lever effect.

I am also glad to hear that getting in a door jam is a bad idea, i was wondering about that myself if that was still a good thing do to (thinking it was an old school train of thought).

SO MUCH bad bad information is still being taught out there - to our children- about safety which are all LIES.
It really blows my mind. Star and Flag!