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.
 
 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. I am amazed that even
 today schools are still using the ?Duck and Cover? instructions- telling the
 children to squat under their desks with their heads bowed and covered with
 their hands. This was the technique used in the Mexico City school.
 
 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.
 
 TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
 
 1) Almost 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. That
 position helps you 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. Concrete slab buildings are the most
 dangerous during an earthquake.
 
 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) Almost 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 lying in the
 fetal position 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 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.
 
 Spread the word and save someone’s life…. The entire world is experiencing
 natural calamities so be prepared!