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 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 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. 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 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.
Spread the word and save someone's life...
Doug Copp
American Rescue Team
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