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Phase 5: Salvage and Search Again





When certain about the location of a victim, rescuers can start digging. Locating and rescuing survivors is, of course, the number one priority. As much as possible, rescue workers should be brought in for the salvage of survivors to reduce time. Before any action is taken, you should first try to determine the best way to reach the victim. Rescue operations for different types of damage are given in the next chapter. Depending on the situation, consider the following options:

 

• Clear loose rubble to approach the victim from above.

• Clear an entrance through adjoining buildings or rooms by breaking through a wall.

• Clear a passage to the victim through the rubble (shafts, trenches, horizontal tunnels, etc.). Sometimes entering from the side can be better in order not to stand on the victim.

Any cleared rubble must be removed to a remote area where it can’t obstruct or endanger workers on the disaster site. Search and rescue dogs should first search the place where the rubble will be dumped.

Figure 10.29 Phase 5 is about recovering victims.

 

Dangers and Safety Signaling

One must always remember that a rubble pile can slide away. That’s why unstable rubble and construction materials have to be propped; hollow spaces can be used to penetrate deeper into the rubble pile. Unnecessary moving of rubble has to be avoided because dust, mortar, beams, or concrete blocks can come down. Such falling debris can suffocate buried people.

Helpers that go into a pile of rubble can be secured to a line attached to their chest belt and secured outside. Rescue work is physically demanding, so rescuers should rest regularly.

 

Effective emergency signaling is essential for safe operation at a disaster site. All team members working on collapsed structures should be briefed regarding emergency signals. All rescuers are required to immediately respond to all emergency signals. These signals must be clear and concise, so air horns or other hailing devices should be used to sound the appropriate signals, as follows:

• Evacuate: three short signals (one second each), repeated until the site is cleared

• Cease Operations/Quiet: one long signal (three seconds)

• Resume Operations: one long signal (three seconds) plus one short signal (one second)

In the case where there is no contact with a victim after a double-checked alert, the search and rescue dog should stay in the vicinity to show the direction where the victim is lying. Always take the wind direction into account and make use of the dog’s ability to follow the scent cone to the victim.

Figure 10.30 Always try to get medical assistance on the site as soon as possible. (Bam, Iran, 2003).

 

Life-Saving Treatments

If a living person is found, then the head and chest have to be freed as soon as possible, and dirt in and around the respiratory tracts has to be cleaned out. If the heart and breathing have stopped, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) should take place immediately on location. Don’t wait to first dig the victim out entirely, but directly start CPR. Wounded people have to be immediately taken care of with life-saving treatments.

As soon as the body is dug out, do everything necessary to safely transport the victim from the rubble. After that the victim is taken to the hospital or field hospital. Always keep in mind that one of the biggest hazards is combined shock and hypothermia. Many people die if these two conditions occur together. Therefore, treat victims immediately with inside and outside warmth (warm drinks, blankets, etc.)—without making them too hot—rest, and all the reassurance you can. Get medical assistance on the rubble as soon as possible.

Once contact with buried survivors has been made, it should not be broken off until the victims have been brought to safety. Wounded people may not be able to give a loud call. Rescuers should then try to get knocking signals from the victim as an answer, which is important in determining the proportion and speed of the rescue work. For instance: “How many people are with you—knock once for each.”

The urge for self-preservation and the will of a victim to survive are responsible for a so-called emergency-adaptation reaction. The human body is oriented, with all its reserves, toward surviving. This extreme stress can last until the victim is rescued, at which time the victim may die, the so-called salvage death, due to overwhelming relief. The happiness of being saved can quickly deplete the body’s will to survive. That’s why you should never tell a victim during or after the salvage that he or she is safe now. The victim still has to work for survival and rescuers have to keep telling this to the victim until he or she is under full medical control.

 

Search Again

After salvage, the search and rescue dog must once again search the same area, because it’s possible there may be more victims in or around the same place.

Figure 10.31 After rescuing a victim, it is important that the dog be brought back into the sector to check for other victims. (Avellino, Italy, 1980)

 

Marking Box

After finishing a search operation, the collapsed structure has to be marked by the operational leader with brightly colored dyestuff or spray in a clearly visible place. This is to avoid having other rescue workers searching the structure again. The mark can also warn unauthorized people, residents, or neighbors away from the dangers of the damaged area. These prescribed markings give, besides dangers, information about the number of salvaged survivors and dead, the unit that was operating, and the date and time of the salvage.

Structural marking should be applied on collapsed structures assessed by Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams. The marking should be placed near the point of entry on the exterior of the collapsed structure that offers the best visibility. All assessment results are to be reported to the command centre immediately.

 

The structural marking prescribed in the guidelines of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) is a one-meter square figure with, at the edges, hazard information at the top, the number of live victims removed on the left, the number of dead victims removed on the right, and the number of people unaccounted for and the location of other victims at the bottom. The name of the search and rescue team plus the mission start and finish date and time are written in the center. Inside the figure at the top, Go (G) is written if it is deemed safe to enter, or No Go (NG) if it is deemed unsafe to enter the collapsed structure.

When the USAR team has completed work on the structure, a circle is drawn around the entire marking. After all the work on the structure has been completed and it is confirmed there are no more victims, a horizontal line is to be drawn through the entire marking.

The operational leader always has to detail the results of the search and rescue at the command center and sign out when moving on to another mission or going home.

Figure 10.32 The marking box is prescribed in the INSARAG guidelines. It is a one-meter square with hazard information at the top, the number of live victims removed on the left, the number of dead victims removed on the right, and the number of people unaccounted for and the location of other victims at the bottom. Write the name of the search and rescue team plus the mission start and finish date and time in the center. Draw a circle around the marking box when the mission is finished.

 

Case Study: Izmit Earthquake, Turkey, August 1999

That night in the Turkish city of Izmit, the dogs were restless. They barked a lot, didn’t want to stay in the house, and could find no rest. Like the dogs, other animals were also restless. In the countryside, farmers noticed that the chickens didn’t go into their coops and that mice and rats appeared out of their holes. Several hours later, it became clear why.

At 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 17, 1999, the earth in Turkey trembled for a full minute. The soil seemed not to find peace. Even in the megacity of Istanbul, about sixty miles (90 km) away, the catastrophic earthquake was noticeable for forty-five seconds and created havoc.

Panic and Chaos

The epicenter of the earthquake—the point on the earth’s surface from which the quake waves spread—lay in the densely populated industrial city of Izmit. The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, surprised the people in their sleep. One survivor said the tremors were so intense that he had fallen out of his bed. Tens of thousands of people tried to escape unsuccessfully through the stairwells of their eight- to ten-storey flats. Hundreds of people jumped in panic from their balconies and countless others were buried under the rubble of collapsed houses and buildings. Panic and chaos reigned in the darkness of night as the power went out, phone lines were destroyed, and the streets were littered with debris. Everywhere in the dark people screamed and wailed.

 

Tremendous fires broke out in thirteen large tanks at a major oil refinery near Izmit. For days there was a high explosion risk from the fires and their proximity to chemical plants. The damage in the earthquake area was so extensive because the depth of the earthquake was only about eighteen miles (30 km) below the surface.

Figure 10.33 In a panic, people jumped from balconies, and others were trapped under thick concrete layers in the rubble.

 

Practiced and Prepared

That morning we listen at 7:00 a.m. to the news and hear the first reports of what happened in Turkey. In the next news bulletins, the dimensions of the disaster become clearer as the number of victims increases dramatically. At 8:00 a.m., a message tells the search and rescue dog group of the Austrian Red Cross to prepare for a possible deployment to Turkey.

Routinely, we perform a rapid check of our always-ready backpacks and other supplies, filling the water jugs and food barrels for our dogs. Our dogs look on curiously. For both our Malinois Speedy and our German Shepherd Tessa, these are not unusual events, because they’ve been on many missions before.

Somewhat later the beeper gives the final message for deployment of our Emergency Response Unit—Search and Rescue (ERU–SAR) of the Red Cross. While our group of fifteen dogs and handlers, along with the care team, are driven to the airport, our thoughts go back to our previous earthquake deployment. Will we meet the same sort of situation? Thanks to the new ERU–SAR setup, we can now respond quickly enough to reach the disaster area in about four hours. Our special reserved plane is ready to go. Our dogs travel with us in the cabin, and each dog even has its own reserved seat. The seats, however, are used for our backpacks, and the dogs settle themselves comfortably on the floor of the plane.

In the Search Area

Three hours later, our plane lands at Istanbul airport, where we are welcomed by a representative of the Turkish Red Cross, the Red Crescent. That man has a bus and truck arranged for transport to the disaster area about sixty miles (90 km) away, as well as some interpreters, so we don’t lose much time. Our search area is Izmit, the epicenter of the earthquake, and our assigned district, Derince, includes the most damaged areas of the town.

In the bus we divide our handlers into groups of three dogs so we can start searching immediately upon arrival. Our first rubble objects lie on the main avenue of Izmit, where multiple six- to eight-storey flats are completely in ruins. The heavy concrete slabs of the floors lie almost against each other, with only small cavities here and there where we might be able to find survivors. With their bare hands relatives are digging in the heavy debris. But where should they search?

Immediately our dogs start to work there, balancing on the difficult rubble, and within minutes we have the first alerts of living people, endorsed by a second dog. At the places where the dogs have alerted, people start screaming into the rubble, but no answer comes back. Are our dogs wrong? Perhaps they are tired from the hectic trip.

Then people begin to take away the heavy debris barriers and we search on at the adjacent rubble cone. Suddenly we hear the work stop and diggers talk excitedly to one another. One has heard voices under the rubble, but in which direction? Our dogs search in the dug-out hollow and, with the same cheerfulness as before, they scratch and bite in the wood and stones in an attempt to remove the rubble. In this way they indicate the direction of further excavation. At one location, this is to the right or left of heavy concrete slabs, but elsewhere the dogs indicate that the workers first have to dig even deeper down.

So we and our dogs toil in the scorching heat of the ruins. The daytime temperature rises to over 95°F (35°C), and where we work in the sunshine is really hot.

Figure 10.34 Our dogs went straight to work and within minutes found the first survivors under the rubble.

 

Showing Directions

While the diggers continue to work, we search with our dogs at other objects—rubble piles or locations—in the vicinity, returning again and again so that the dogs can indicate the direction to dig toward the victim if there is no contact. Our method of direction-showing alerts with the dogs works well. Within a short time, the first victims are freed. On one object we find four people; on the next, three; then again four victims, and so on. Just a few hours after starting, we have salvaged sixteen people alive from the rubble, and it goes on.

Family Tragedy

Where we have rescued a man and his wife alive from the rubble, two children are still missing. As usual after the victims have been removed from the rubble, we again search that area with a dog. The dog that works there goes to the hole from which both people have been rescued, barks shortly, and immediately dives under the rubble. With our flashlights, we follow him tensely and discover that he stands with laid-back ears, whining softly, gently scratching in one spot. He looks back at us, as if he wants to convince himself that we have seen him. For us it is a clear indication that this is a dead person. One of the missing children?

The dog comes back, jumps out of the hole and goes to another place in the rubble, where we discover cracks in the concrete. The dog searches all the cracks and stops at a spot. Here he starts wagging and enthusiastically scratching. Because his paws are not very successful, he barks in annoyance. Another living person found, that’s for sure!

The handler walks on the rubble, and while he presses his dog a bit to the side, he smuggles the dog’s sock toy into the rubble. The dog starts pawing again, sticks his nose under the debris and finds his reward for the search right in the path of the victim’s odor. Playing with his sock toy, the dog walks away from the debris, followed by his handler. People call into the rubble but get no answer.

Before the heavy digging work can start, another dog searches the area. The second dog starts searching from the other side and first runs over the spot of the first dog’s alert—until he gets the windblown scent and with a jerk turns to the place of his predecessor’s alert and gives a powerful alert of his own. Relieved, we take a breath and immediately careful digging begins. After our dogs show the right direction for excavation several times, a four-year-old boy is freed alive from his void under the rubble. Help came too late for his seven-year-old sister, found later at a place under the rubble. She was crushed in her bed. The sight of her mutilated corpse will long remain in my memory.

Fantastic Results

We take a short break to consult with our other groups and give the dogs some rest. We hear that on the other ruins, lots of victims were also located by alerts from our dogs and have been removed alive from the rubble, so that we have almost doubled our numbers of victims found alive.

Such great results surpass our most optimistic expectations and motivate us to continue. Our intensive training and our arrival at the disaster area within twelve hours are rewarded. We are more than satisfied!

However, there is no time to think, because news of the results of our dogs spreads through the town like wildfire, and from all directions people ask for our dogs’ help.

The Solid Wall

We now reach a huge rubble pile of three five-storey apartment buildings that collapsed completely. The debris is so close together that we hardly dare to think of survivors. At least forty people are missing here, our interpreter tells us, pointing to the right side of the rubble pile. In the middle and on the left side, people dig with their bare hands to find their trapped relatives.

We begin with two dogs that scour from the left and right edge of the rubble pile to the center. In several places we see their alerts of dead people, and while the handlers mark these places with bright-colored spray, the dogs search on. At those marked spots our dogs will later show the direction to the victims.

The left dog is first in the center of the rubble pile, and it dives under a raised concrete slab. We see how he is air-scenting for odor and then attempts to penetrate. But the heavy debris impedes his passage. About twenty inches (50 cm) above his head, he gets a smell and jumps, barking against a solid wall. We look at each other. One of the interpreters comes forward and asks if someone is alive behind the wall. We shake our heads and indicate precisely the opposite direction. Our interpreter does not understand it, but that’s not important. We decide to use another dog to search that area, and that dog shows the same curious alert in the corner of the solid wall.

We investigate the upright debris in the opposite direction, and one of the dogs now tries to get odor from the top. The many bars that lie in a tangle over that place don’t make it easy for the dog to get up there. From down below the handler gives his dog left and right directions to search, and the ability to direct his dog from a distance turns out to be very useful training. “Directability at a distance” is part of the IPO-R examination program.

While the dog climbs up, he searches the area and we see how he suddenly shows interest in an adjacent elevation in the rubble with two gigantic slabs at an angle of about forty-five degrees to each other upwards. We let the dog come down, and he goes straight to the foot of the smooth concrete floors. He searches intensively but gives no clue, and we decide that he has to go upstairs. But the dog doesn’t stand a chance on the smooth and too-steep concrete. Therefore we ask the bystanders to bring us doors and other wood to cover the smooth concrete so the dog can climb. There he smells intensively at an opening and immediately starts pawing. This place is at least three yards (3 m) away from the place where the dog caught the first scent on the wall.

The dog is now rewarded with his sock toy. The handler yells into the rubble, but there is no answer. Therefore we give a second dog the slanting floor with the wood on it as its designated search area. The dog climbs nimbly up and after a short left and right smell also gives us a powerful alert.

People start talking to us and our interpreter asks if we know how many people are below. We shrug our shoulders. Our dogs indicate that human scent comes out of the rubble, and from the behavior of our dogs we can conclude whether it is an alive or dead alert. But how many people the dog smells, we can’t ask them.

We’re in luck, because just then a group of Turkish soldiers arrives to assist in the rescue work. We tell the commander our findings, and he immediately gives his men the necessary instructions.

Figure 10.35 The damage in the earthquake area was huge.

 

A Child’s Foot

While the soldiers are at work, we go to a collapsed house around the corner where people ask for our help searching for two missing children. When we arrive, the dead mother is just being taken out of the rubble. Two young children are still missing, and we decide first to search on the gaps in the rubble where the bedroom of the children could have been. There we get from the dog a remarkable alert. First we see how he carefully sniffs at a hole in the rubble, withdraws his tail, and hesitantly walks around the hole. Then suddenly his behavior changes completely, and we see how he gets excited and intensively scratches with his paw in the hole. After our interpreter calls into the hole but gets no answer, we decide to take away some debris from the hole and then send another dog to search, to get a better overview. After we remove about twelve inches (30 cm) of debris, I suddenly encounter something moveable with my glove. I look inside with my flashlight, and it appears to be a child’s foot. The color of the foot, and the huge mass of debris around it, do not augur well.

We ask the military commander to undertake the salvage of the child clamped under the rubble quickly but carefully, because we suspect that the other child might be beneath it and possibly still alive, given the dog’s behavior. Two hours later, our suspicion proves correct, and the father can take his only surviving child in his arms.

New Opening

We soon need a break and walk back to the previous rubble pile, where we see the salvage team gesturing to us. The interpreter tells us that they have an opening in the concrete and below it are more concrete layers. They are hearing beat signals, and he asks if we want to search with the dogs. However, it is dangerous for the dogs to go under the heavy rubble because of the numerous aftershocks we still feel. We decide to rely on the feeling that earthquake-experienced dogs have for such situations and take an experienced dog to search the area below the large concrete layer. This dog reaches the hole and jumps on the underlying concrete slab. With his nose in the air, he goes to the right under the rubble, remains at a crack in the slab, and begins a pawing alert.

We advise the commander of the salvage team to continue working from above and make a new entrance over the place the dog alerted to penetrate the underlying layers. He agrees and puts his people back to work. Later that night, with loud applause from the bystanders, they remove a whole family of three adults and two children alive out of the rubble.

Figure 10.36 The concrete layers are so close together that we hardly dare to think of survivors.

 

Over the Limits

When we meet the dog handlers of our other groups again, we all seem to have lost count of how many people our dogs have found under the rubble. Only our team leaders know exactly how many we’ve found, but they are always busy. We dog handlers have no time for recordkeeping. We only know that in the first forty-eight hours since we arrived in the catastrophic area, we have slept only five hours. And the next days won’t differ.

The rubble of what once was a twelve-storey apartment is now a sixteen-foot- (5 m) high debris pile in front of us. At least seventy people are missing, and as skillfully as our dogs search, they find only a few who can be saved alive.

In a house, a woman on the second floor is missing. The accumulation of concrete floors makes it almost impossible for the dogs to search. The building is collapsed like a house of cards. When I climb up to view the bedroom, I see there is blood on the collapsed ceiling. In the underlying rubble the dogs alert for the dead woman.

In another pile, a salvage team indicates to us where they made a hole in a giant concrete slab above a bedroom. The dog would have to indicate there the direction of further digging, but the dog smells nothing. However, in what once must have been the staircase, we get a clear alive alert, and then again from the second dog. Reluctantly the salvage team removes the debris from the stairwell, each time shaking heads and pointing to the bedroom. When they have dug out a hole about one yard (1 m) deep, we bring back a dog. Intensively the dog scratches in the rubble around two plastic tubes and bites the tubes in an attempt to remove them. Rapidly the workers dig further and then encounter a thick layer of concrete. Suddenly the rescuers hear calling and make contact with a man and woman trapped in a twenty-inch (50 cm) space between two slanting, almost upright layers. Now the rescuers believe our dogs!

Heavily Mutilated Bodies

All the successful rescues we have with our dogs in Izmit do not remain unnoticed. Other foreign salvage services in the area ask for our help. An English salvage team is so impressed that they follow our dog groups on their quests along the rubble, and an American salvage group asks many times for our dogs.

On the pile where the husband and wife are freed from their perilous position between the concrete layers, two people are still missing. There is now about three yards (3 m) of debris cleared, representing at least five floors. On the first floor, both missing people, a pregnant woman and her husband, must be located, and that means two concrete layers below us. On our advice the rescue workers make small holes in the concrete at various places and in one of them our dogs clearly indicate a deceased victim. After a difficult salvage, the heavily mutilated bodies of the two missing people are found.

Figure 10.37 Increasingly, more foreign rescue teams rely on our dogs in searching the rubble.

 

Grandma and Child

In the rubble of a building along the main road, two people are missing, a young boy and his grandmother. In the excavated bowl where rescuers suspect the victims are, our dogs alert nothing. But more to the right, on the rubble, a dog gives a powerful live alert. The second dog is also sure, and because clearing the rubble there goes quickly, we decide to wait, although others already want to take us to the other side of town. A confused and crying boy is carefully removed from the rubble. For a few days he spoke with his grandmother under the rubble, until she didn’t answer anymore.

Our Search Winds Down

After five days, the alerts of people alive become scarcer and the stench that hangs over the rubble makes it clear that only death reigns here. In the time we have worked here, all our dogs and their handlers have far exceeded the limits of their performance. The dogs get tired faster and sleep deeply during the short rest periods. We now save their energy as much as possible and go only to those ruins where knock signals or human voices are heard. And as the residents or relatives discover this, of course, everywhere in town they hear knock signals or human voices in the rubble—even in places our dogs have already searched. Although we realize that finding the dead for the families is important, we want to save our dogs as much as possible for the few people we may be able to save alive from the rubble.

On the way home, handlers and dogs step tired and sleepy into the aircraft cabin. The many days our dogs have searched in the heavy rubble of Izmit are clearly visible in Ayko, Bazil, Karma, Igor, Daisy, Tessa, Speedy, and the others. Only thanks to their formidable noses and our special training methods were we able to accomplish what we did. We showed that they were not only world champions in competition one month earlier, but also during an actual deployment.

 

Building Damage Typology

 

After the air attacks on residential areas during World War II, it was discovered that the same characteristic damages always occurred to buildings. Because of that, in 1942 a German engineer named Maak Hamburg developed a system of twelve signs by which one could assess the kind of damage a building had sustained. Whether by earthquake or explosion, the same types of damage always occur. Three additional characteristic areas of damage (the tooth gap, the damage crater, and the doll’s house), were later added to the original twelve.

Figure 11.1 The twelve damage types. Three other damage elements not illustrated here are tooth gap, damage crater, and doll’s house.

 

Elements of Damage

This section describes the fifteen types of damage that can be found in buildings. Inset on each illustration is the symbol for that damage type. Use these symbols on cards during exercises to give an overview of the damage and discuss the best approach for the search and rescue dog teams to search for survivors. In most cases, more than one type of damage will be found in a house or building. Knowledge of these types of damage will help in assessing dangers, choosing places to enter, and identifying where survivors are most likely to be found. You’ll also know where you can work with search and rescue dogs and where there is no point in searching.

 

The fifteen building damage types can be grouped according to whether they describe areas, rooms, or building elements.

1. Damage types describing areas

• Tooth gap

• Damage crater

• Doll’s house

2. Damage types describing rooms

• Swallow’s nest

• Half room

• Spilled room

• Mud-filled room

• “With layers pressed” room

• Chipped room

• Barricaded room

3. Damage types describing building elements

• Slide surface

• Layers

• Debris cone

• Fringe debris A

• Fringe debris B

Tooth Gap

The tooth gap is what we call part of a building that has been blown away, usually by explosion, between a connected series of buildings. Be careful of beams hanging off the sides and other hazards. Victims may be buried in the debris cone outside the building.

Search: Because of the great danger of further collapsing the rubble and suffocating the victims, don’t walk on the rubble yourself. The much lighter weight of the dogs makes them better for this task. See the “Debris Cone” section on page 210 for more information.

 

Rescue: Usually approach from above or from the sides. Where there are big concrete slabs on the debris cone, preventing salvage from that direction, you can sometimes reach victims by breaking through walls via neighboring houses.

Figure 11.2 Tooth gap.

 

Damage Crater

A damage crater is a building in which the lower part is destroyed and the upper part is blown away, forming a crater. This damage has significant danger from falling rubble. Victims can be buried in the debris cone at the foot of the building.

Search: Because of the danger of suffocating victims by collapsing more rubble, don’t walk on the rubble yourself—send the dogs. See the “Debris Cone” section on page 210 for more information.

Rescue: Approach from above or from the side. Where there are big concrete slabs on the debris cone, preventing salvage from that direction, you can sometimes reach victims by breaking through walls via neighboring houses.

Figure 11.3 Damage crater.

Figure 11.4 Damage crater. (Algeria, 2003)

 

Doll’s House

Because of a gas explosion or earthquake, the exterior walls have been blown off the building. Without these supporting walls, the building is very unstable, so there is a great danger of it coming down.

Search: Each room of the house can be described as a swallow’s nest (page 194). At the foot of the doll’s house there is fringe debris, which should be searched thoroughly by dogs.

 

Rescue: Use the same approach as for a swallow’s nest (below) or fringe debris A or B (page 213).

Figure 11.5 Doll’s house.

Figure 11.6 Doll’s house. (Leninakan, Armenia, 1988)

 

Swallow’s Nest

A swallow’s nest is a partially collapsed room on a floor that can’t be reached by a staircase. Because of damage to supporting walls or ceilings, these rooms are often quite unstable.

 

Search: Because of the danger of collapse, you have to assess whether entering by way of ladders on the outside wall is safe. Survivors can be found in the swallow’s nest. It is impossible for search and rescue dogs to reach this room on their own. Sometimes it is possible to bring a dog to a swallow’s nest in an airlift harness. Carefully consider whether the entrance is safe.

Rescue: The salvage of victims from a swallow’s nest is very difficult and will mostly be done by specialists. When a crane or a tower wagon is available, it can make the work a lot easier.

Figure 11.7 Swallow’s nest.

Figure 11.8 Salvage from a swallow’s nest is difficult and requires specialists with a crane or who can break through the wall. It may be possible to bring a dog to a swallow’s nest up a ladder on an outside wall with an airlift harness.

 

Figure 11.9 Swallow’s nest. (Vienna, Austria, 2006)

 

Half Room

A half room happens under slide surfaces and pile-ups when some or all of the walls and floor of the original room are still intact, leaving pockets of space. The half room can also occur when walls, doors, or other debris are propped against one another.

Search: Many victims may be buried in half rooms. There is also a good chance to find survivors in half rooms. Search and rescue dogs should thoroughly search the outside edges of half rooms. In particular, all broken edges, cracks, and other openings from which a scent cone could issue have to be searched carefully. Because of how various debris may lie, remember that the odor will not always come up via the top of the half rooms, although this is mostly the case.

Rescue: Half rooms can also be used to penetrate farther into the rubble. Rescuers can try to penetrate via the sides or from the back through window or door openings. If that isn’t possible, then entrance can be gained by breaking through the slide surface. The slide surface should not be weakened because of the breakthrough, as this can cause a full collapse. Breaking through the wall that supports the slide surface has to be avoided because of the danger of collapse. If this is the only way to get into the half room, then the wall has to be propped against sideways pressure. Care should be taken when using machinery that causes vibrations.

Figure 11.10 Half room.

 

Figure 11.11 Dogs should carefully search broken edges, cracks and openings. Rescuers can try to penetrate the half room from the sides or back through window or door openings. An entry may also be created by breaking through the slide surface.

Figure 11.12 Half room. (Leninakan, Armenia, 1988)

 

Spilled Room

The spilled room occurs when floors collapse into rooms below while the walls are still standing (usually in basements). The room is filled up with rubble, and hollow spaces of various sizes are left in between.

Search: Search and rescue dogs are the only hope of locating victims in spilled rooms with any great certainty. Survivors could be found in the hollow spaces, although victims can die from the pressure of the rubble. Walk as little as possible on the rubble yourself and let the dog do its work. Shifting the rubble or raising dust can cause the death of buried people.

Rescue: Breaking through the wall from the rooms next to the spilled room is often the best opportunity to get under the rubble in the spilled room. When the victim is lying in a favorable place, salvage by a wall breakthrough is possible. Otherwise the rubble has to be cleared from above. This clearing has to be done very carefully to avoid moving rubble and disturbing dust.

Figure 11.13 Spilled room.

Figure 11.14 Walk as little as possible on the rubble yourself; dogs can locate victims here with great certainty. To salvage, carefully clear rubble from above or by breaking through a wall.

Figure 11.15 Spilled room. (Izmit, Turkey, 1999)

 

Mud-Filled Room

The mud-filled room occurs when a mix of water, soil, and rubble penetrates a room with intact walls and floor. The cause of this can be damaged waterworks, the water sprayed by the fire department, but also a landslide, the collapse of a dam, overflowing rivers, and so on. Often the mud becomes an almost solid mass.

Search: You shouldn’t count on rescuing anyone alive from a mud-filled room because they will probably have suffocated or drowned. Search and rescue dogs specially trained for search work in water or landslides are able to locate victims in mud-filled rooms.

Figure 11.16 Mud-filled room.

Figure 11.17 Mud often becomes an almost solid mass, which makes search and rescue very difficult. Don’t count on rescuing survivors from a mud-filled room.

Figure 11.18 A mud-filled basement. (Vienna, Austria, 2006)

 

Deadly Mud

On a 1985 mission after a major dam break in northern Italy, search and rescue dogs found few survivors in the collapsed houses because of mud-filled rooms. The whole area was full of mud, water, and silt. We often find the same sort of situation in the cellars of buildings we have to search after a fire.

With Layers Pressed Room

A “with layers pressed” room occurs when several slide surfaces come down into a room, the walls of which are still standing. The slide surfaces stack up in a steep incline against a wall.

Search: Dogs may be able to locate and alert to people beneath the rubble in hollow spaces. The best place for the search can be the upper side of the rubble, but wind blowing onto the pile means a dog on top may not be able to smell a victim underneath. The dog may need to smell from the sides of the pile or from within the room in which the layers have fallen.

Rescue: To get into the layers, one has to try to find a breakthrough in the transverse walls to the layers. Don’t break through supporting walls. You may have to prop the walls. In some cases you may be able to come in through the top.

Figure 11.19 “With layers pressed” room.

Figure 11.20 From the upper side of the rubble, dogs are able to locate survivors in hollow spaces. For salvage, you may be able to come in through the top or by breaking through the wall that is transverse to the layers.

Figure 11.21 “With layers pressed” room. (Haiti, 2010)

 

Chipped Room

A chipped room occurs when an explosion or strong vibrations leave the walls of a room standing, but less solid because of damage to important supporting points. The damaged room can contain rubble from the roof and walls.

Search: Be careful going into these rooms, because there is a significant danger of collapse, often without this danger being visible from the outside. In addition, burning rubble piles can cause an accumulation of toxic gases, including carbon monoxide. Going inside can be very dangerous. Because there is usually less rubble in these rooms than in other damaged rooms, the chipped room can often be searched effectively by looking and calling without going in. Let the dog try to catch human odor from the entrance of the chipped room through a door opening or a hole in a wall.

Rescue: Because of the danger of collapse, you should exercise extreme caution when entering, and this can better be left to specialists. This room has to be propped up well before starting the salvage. When you can’t enter these rooms the normal way (via staircases and doors), you can try to organize the salvage with a ladder through a window.

Figure 11.22 Chipped room.

Figure 11.23 Chipped rooms pose a great danger of collapse. Let the dog try to catch human odor from the door opening or a hole in the wall first. The room has to be propped very well before you start the salvage. If entering the room through a door is impossible, try to organize salvage with a ladder or by breaking through the wall.

Figure 11.24 Chipped rooms. (Algeria, 2003)

 

Barricaded Room

Often occurring in basements, the barricaded room is closed off with rubble preventing the trapped people from getting out. The room is relatively stable, but there is a possibility of suffocation if the room is surrounded by a big mass of rubble.

 

Search: There can be survivors in rooms that are only barricaded; basements are particularly well known for harboring survivors. Search and rescue dogs can easily locate victims in these rooms. If there are people missing, it is often handy to ask the people who live there or their neighbors if there are rooms like basements, halls, staircases, and so on.

Rescue: If freeing up the entrance is too time-consuming, try to reach the barricaded room via bordering rooms. Make a fresh air vent for survivors as soon as possible. These rooms can eventually function, after clearing them of rubble and checking them, as a sort of emergency department.

Figure 11.25 Barricaded room.

Figure 11.26 Barricaded basement rooms often have survivors. First make a fresh air vent for survivors. Then, if freeing up an entrance is too time consuming, try to get in through bordering rooms.

Figure 11.27 Barricaded basement. (Kaynasli, Turkey, 1999)

 

Salvaged after Two Weeks

After the earthquake of 1980 in southern Italy, we salvaged a woman from a cellar who was alive after fourteen days in a barricaded room. She was there when the earthquake took place and got blocked in. With the help of food such as sweet peppers and dripping water, she kept herself alive. When, after many days hard work, we reached the distant farm, our dogs alerted to her presence in the barricaded cellar. The odor came strongly to the outside, although the cellar was covered with a thirteen-foot-high (4 m high) debris pile.

Slide Surface

A slide surface happens when the supporting walls of an upper floor are destroyed and the ceiling or floor then collapses at a slant. The slide surface can hang free or be compacted down in rubble piles; it can also hang almost perpendicular or be cracked in a V-shape. With a slide surface, rubble and furniture slide down from the floor above.

Search: In this accumulation of rubble, victims can be found who, at the time of collapse, were either on the upper floor or in the collapsed room. Search and rescue dogs are easily able to work out the location. Ask the dogs to search every edge and crack in the slide surface to pick up the odor of possible victims lying underneath.

Rescue: The salvage work has to be based on the situation of the slide surface.

Figure 11.28 Slide surface.

Figure 11.29 Have rescue dogs search every crack and edge for survivors at the foot or below the slide surface. Salvage by overturning the slide surface to access places underneath or by a passage half way through the slide surface or through the wall.

Figure 11.30 Slide surface. (Beaumerde, Algeria, 2003)

 

1. When the slide surface is still attached to another part of the structure (usually reinforced concrete attached to the structure above or to a side wall), then the bottom will hang somewhere. The rubble that slid down lies at the foot of the slide surface. In this case, the bottom should be carefully raised and firmly propped. The slide surface has to be secured when there is a threat that the upper connection could break away. After that the rescue workers can go under the slide surface to salvage victims.

2. If the slide surface is no longer connected to the upper floor, then the bottom sticks in the rubble pile at the bottom. After this rubble is searched thoroughly for victims, rescuers must work around the slide surface (via the sides) to salvage victims lying underneath. When this is not possible, the bottom of the slide surface must be secured to prevent it sliding further. After that, a passage of two feet by two feet (60 x 60 cm) can be created in the middle of the slide surface. If this has to be done with machines, it should be done very carefully, because vibrations can cause more rubble to come down. Overturning the slide surface to access places underneath is only possible with mechanical power and lies outside the work of search and rescue dog handlers.

Layers

Layers occur in the collapse of multilevel buildings when several floors come down and lie more or less slanting on each other. Depending on the slant of the layers, the spaces between the layers may be filled up with rubble. The more slanted the piles, the less they are filled with rubble.

Search: Every surface of the pile can be seen as a slide surface. Victims can be trapped in the spaces. Survivors can be found in hollow places in even the lower layers. Search and rescue dogs have to search the edges and cracks closely; the upper edge has priority. Because of a greater depth and covering, you have to give the dog more time and opportunity to search the whole pile.

Rescue: When there is no entrance on the side, rescue workers must handle each layer like a slide surface. As rubble is taken away, every slide surface has to be secured against further sliding and breaking off. Work from the outside layers to the inside layers, like peeling an onion. After securing the outside slide surfaces, in particular the bottom, you can penetrate further.

Figure 11.31 Layers.

Figure 11.32 When rubble between layers is taken away, every slide surface has to be secured. Because of depth and covering, you need to give the dog more time and opportunity to search the whole pile of layers.

Figure 11.33 Horizontal layers. (Beaumerde, Algeria, 2003)

 

Debris Cone

A debris cone occurs when a building collapses completely. There is total destruction and a mixture of building materials lying amid the rubble. Basement rooms can be found undamaged under the debris cone.

 

Search: There can be survivors under the debris cone. Because of the danger of suffocation, hasty and careful work is an absolute must. That’s also why you shouldn’t go on the rubble yourself, because there is a danger of causing further collapse, with victims suffocating or becoming more trapped. Search and rescue dogs can do good work on a debris cone. Let them search by themselves. Use the five phases method (see the chapter “Disaster Deployment Tactics”) for search and rescue dogs. And after an alert without contact with the victim, use the direction-showing alerts of the dog in which, after digging out some rubble by rescuers, the dog follows the scent cone to the victim, each time showing us the right direction for salvage. Let the dogs always work from the outlying areas towards the middle of the cone, so that rescuers know what areas can safely be walked on without harming survivors. The search and rescue dogs will usually detect the location of the victims from the top. However, remember that wind direction on the rubble could cause the dog to be unable to smell the victims from the top. Searching from the fringe and the sides will, in that case, be more successful.

 

Rescue: The work of salvage in a debris cone is extremely difficult and time-consuming. Normally the salvage can take place from the sides or the top, but sometimes it is possible to salvage through bordering basement rooms under the ground. In digging a shaft through the rubble mass, the walls have to be secured on all sides.

Figure 11.34 Debris cone.

Figure 11.35 Don’t go on the debris cone yourself because you might suffocate survivors below the surface. Dogs can do very good work on a debris cone. Salvage from a debris cone is often difficult and time consuming because of the need to dig a shaft through the rubble mass.

Figure 11.36 Debris cone. (Izmit, Turkey, 1999)

 

Salvaged Alive

In Mexico, after the major earthquake of 1985, a woman was salvaged alive after seven days from beneath the rubble of a collapsed multi-storey house. Several search and rescue dogs had given an alert, indicating that under the enormous rubble mass someone was still alive. With great difficulty, a shaft was dug, the sides of which were in danger of collapse. With the support of experienced mining engineers, it was possible to make a reasonably safe corridor, in which the dogs continued to show the direction to dig, until the woman, from more than thirty feet (7 m) under the rubble, could be salvaged alive. Above her there was a gigantic debris cone, and because of that her calls and knockings for help were not heard. Sounds don’t come easily out of the rubble to the outside world, but under the rubble one hears everything, including the words of rescue team members who are passing and remarking that “in this area nobody is alive anymore.”

The dogs always have to search a debris cone carefully and intensively, and preferably not too quickly, because when the victims are deep beneath the rubble cone, the dogs need to make a lot of effort to catch the odor of the victim. They often have to smell through many yards of rubble. That is only possible when they can concentrate on their work without distractions or extra pressure.

Fringe Debris A

Fringe debris A occurs when rubble from a building piles directly against an outside wall. This debris pile is full of heavy building materials and furniture. Fringe debris often contains unstable hollow spaces.

Search: Because furniture comes down in the debris pile, people can be found in fringe debris A. Before using heavy salvage machinery, this fringe rubble has to be searched carefully. Search and rescue dogs can show the way to victims buried beneath the rubble. The work of the search and rescue dogs is of particular value here and is often very successful.

Rescue: The salvage of victims can be done here in the same way as at a debris cone.

Figure 11.37 Fringe debris A.

Figure 11.38 Because furniture comes down in the debris pile, people can be found in fringe debris A. Salvage in the same manner as the debris cone.

Figure 11.39 Fringe debris A. (Bam, Iran, 2003)

 

Fringe Debris B

Fringe debris B is formed by rubble flung outside over fringe debris A. This debris often forms an extension to the middle of the street. The rubble of fringe debris B usually lies more loosely than in fringe debris A. Besides rubble, fringe debris B may contain trees, streetlights, cars, and other articles and people present on the street at the time of the explosion.

Search: Victims can be found under fringe debris B if people were on the street or thrown out of buildings at the time of the disaster. Mostly they are so covered with dust that they can hardly be distinguished from the surrounding rubble. That’s why the search has to be done very carefully. The use of search and rescue dogs is recommended here again. In fact, this is the first area that has to be searched, so that the way is made clear for further rescue work.

Rescue: The salvage of the victims can take place in the same way as with a debris cone. Until fringe debris B is searched, people or vehicles may not go over this rubble pile.

Figure 11.40 Fringe debris B.

Figure 11.41 This is the first area that has to be searched so the way is clear for further rescue work. If people were on the street or thrown from buildings at the time of the disaster, they can often be found in fringe debris B.

Figure 11.42 Fringe debris B. (Izmit, Turkey, 1999)

 

Case Study: Bam Earthquake, Iran, December 2003

It’s Boxing Day 2003. While sitting at the breakfast table, I hear on the radio the news that a severe earthquake has hit Iran. The thirteen-second quake had a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale. Because the epicenter of the quake was fairly close to the surface, the effects were catastrophic. The ancient city of Bam was razed. The quake occurred at 5:28 a.m. local time, and tens of thousands of victims were surprised in their sleep.

While I hear further news, the phone rings. Pre-alarm for the handlers and dogs of the Austrian Red Cross for a deployment in Iran: our signal to pack up the backpack and duffel bag and get ready for departure. All is ready. The reports follow each other in quick succession. More than 6,000 people have been killed and there are about 30,000 wounded. Many victims are still buried under the rubble. I wonder if the offered assistance to the Iranian Red Crescent has been accepted, because until now, Iran has always rejected the use of search and rescue dogs because it views dogs as unclean. In the afternoon comes the message that Iran requests international assistance, even search and rescue dogs!

On Our Way

At the airport we meet our colleagues. Both the handlers and dogs know each other well from training and deployments. An Airbus A320 is available for our group of twenty-one dogs and handlers plus four logisticians. The plane can carry 150 passengers, so it has more than enough space. During the more than five-hour flight, Speedy lies asleep at my feet in the cabin. She is well practiced and knows to rest now, because there soon will be plenty of work and little time to sleep. We fly directly to the city of Kerman, about 125 miles (200 km) from Bam. There we are welcomed by a member of our sister organization, the Iranian Red Crescent, who has arranged our onward journey.

Figure 11.43 Two rescue groups make their way to the next search area.

 

Alerts

After arriving we are able to start working immediately. The On Site Operations Coordination Centre (OSOCC) sends our group of three dogs to a district in the hard-hit old city. Here three-quarters of the buildings are in ruins, an overwhelming sight of destruction. I see how Speedy goes on search diligently. She seeks what she can and works her way through the masses of debris. In the middle of the rubble she stops, smells intensively, and scratches some debris away with a paw. Then she sniffs again in the rubble and begins to scratch more intensively and stops and looks at me to see if I notice her work. When she sees that this is the case, she lies down and pushes her nose on a spot in the rubble: her way to alert dead people! I tell it to Mehdi, our interpreter, and he informs the Iranian salvage group where they should start digging. We will now look farther on and come back later.

Figure 11.44 Three-quarters of the buildings are in ruins. Almost nothing is left of the 2,000-year-old citadel of Bam.

 

I ask Speedy to continue searching and see her stop at another spot, smelling human odor coming out of the rubble. Again I see that she’s not showing the enthusiasm she has when finding people alive. In front of the door of the neighboring house she alerts for more dead people.

Meanwhile Mehdi tells me that in the first place where Speedy alerted, a man was excavated, and on the spot in the middle of the debris a child of about ten years was found. Unfortunately, both were deceased. We do not let this put us off and search on diligently. Like my colleagues in our group, I still get only get death-alerts. For a short break, we walk back along the rubble, and I get confirmations of Speedy’s other alerts: a man, a baby, two brothers, a mother and child, a woman, two men, and a child under the stairs are found at the different places she indicated.

Figure 11.45 After a woman was excavated, Speedy found her baby here.

 

Mourning Process

The search here is in stark contrast to the many people we found alive in the rubble of the Turkish city of Izmit in 1999. There many people survived in the hollow spaces under concrete slabs that stood against walls. The building construction here in Bam is the cause of the large number of deaths. The walls consisted largely of stones interspersed with clay, and the ceilings were made of straw and clay. With the collapse of the small houses, people were crushed or suffocated under a mass of stones, grit, and dust.

After a short pause we continue searching, and we work until late in the evening. Still we find no survivors, and, as we later hear, our colleagues also have no successes to report. We know, however, that locating the countless dead is still much appreciated. We get a round of thanks from salvage teams for showing them where to dig, and from the families for giving them back their dead relatives, so that the grieving process can begin.

 

When we drive the next day along the historic citadel of the city, we see that almost nothing is left. Two thousand years this citadel stood, but now the impressive walls have collapsed.

In the city there is chaos; vehicles filled with people and their meager belongings try to leave, blocking the roads for helpers who want enter the city.

During the following days we systematically search the rubble, always with the same result. Our dogs find only dead people and it seems no one under the rubble is still alive. The alerts of the dogs follow each other in rapid succession, and the endurance of our dogs is great to see.

Figure 11.46 In our short breaks, we see how tired the dogs are after long hours of searching.

 

Mass Graves

People thank us with tears in their eyes and with a hand on their heart. Their folded hands and sad eyes speak volumes. That evening a reporter shows us photos he took at a place where a cem







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