Shelter
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A shelter is a security area that can be locked against influences from the environment, which - in the narrower sense - serves to protect the civilian population and, in the broader sense, also exists in facilities in which processes dangerous to employees are taking place.
General
The shelters include civil defense systems such as bunkers , air raid shelters and air raid shelters . Shelters of the basic protection protect against
- Thermal radiation
- Fire exposure - heat and smoke
- Debris pollution and fragmentation
- Chemical and biological contamination of the outside air
- Residue radiation
- Air blast and air suction waves
Depending on the technical equipment, shelters are designed for short-term accommodation of around ten hours or up to fourteen days (basic protection systems) and longer.
Shelters for the storage of cultural assets are also referred to as salvage locations or spaces .
Systems in which experiments are carried out that could be dangerous to those involved or to the environment, for example in rocket test rigs, in environments with ionizing radiation , chemically or biologically hazardous environments , are often equipped with protective rooms .
The panic room , which is located within an apartment and is intended to serve as a retreat from burglars or kidnappers, must be distinguished from the shelter . It therefore usually only has a particularly sturdy door and, if necessary, a secured window, which are intended to prevent other (including armed) people from entering.
Applications
There are civilian shelters and those that are used for certain environments such as mining or industry (e.g. chemistry, oil industry). The oil and gas industry speaks of Temporary Refuge (TR) in this context .
Mining
In mining, either escape chambers or shelters are used, with shelters being used when the actual room z. B. is already present by breaking out and is only equipped with breathing air supply systems. Escape chambers are mostly fully equipped containers that can still be moved if necessary. Another distinguishing criterion is the size. Escape chambers usually hold up to 20 people, rooms often over 100. The length of stay is usually between four and 36 hours.
Tunneling
Due to the limited number of people, mobile escape chambers are mostly used on tunnel construction sites .
Traffic tunnel in operation
Nowadays, traffic tunnels are usually built with two tubes, so that escape via crosscuts between the two tubes is possible. In single-tube tunnels or, where the safety concept dictates, also in double-tube tunnels, additional escape rooms can be provided, e.g. B. at the Gotthard Base Tunnel . A major difference to tunnels under construction is the fire load. This is significantly increased in the event of a backlog from cars, so that the thermal influence on the entrance areas of the protected rooms must be taken into account.
Oil and gas industry
The term Temporary Refuge (TR) is generally used here. These are either existing rooms or containers, with several containers being combined in some cases. These rooms are then equipped with respiratory protection systems. The maximum length of stay is usually three hours.
Civil defense: individual states
Germany
In Germany, construction and provision of shelters are, according to the Basic Law in the legislative competence of the federal . However, this does not result in a protective construction obligation. One problem is that, according to Art. 73 GG , the federal government is solely responsible for civil protection; all other protective measures, for example against singular and localized incidents, fall within the competence of the individual federal states ( disaster control ).
Originally intended for protection against the nuclear threat of the Cold War , but have shelters in the event of disasters such as B. severe weather disasters , reactor or chemical accidents their justification. Public shelters were built in the Cold War since the 1960s, for example as part of the construction of underground car parks or subways as so-called multi-purpose facilities. For the private shelter construction, the client received a lump sum from the federal government for each shelter created in order to cover the additional costs of the additional shelter equipment.
Since building shelters is expensive and not popular , it was abandoned in Germany after the end of the Cold War. The density of shelters in Germany is low: In Berlin there are only 27,000 shelters for around 3.39 million inhabitants. In May 2007, the Federal Republic of Germany announced that it would withdraw from the shelter concept and, apart from a few, abandon the existing facilities. According to Section 7 of the Civil Protection Act, there is a general ban on changes to private protected areas that have been funded, but this no longer appears to be mandatory due to the decision of the Federal Government to give up the protected areas.
Switzerland
history
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When the outbreak of World War II became apparent in the 1930s, Switzerland pushed ahead with the construction of air raid shelters. In 1934, the federal government passed a federal resolution to establish air protection. The aim was to be able to offer every Swiss person a place in an air raid shelter. By the end of the Second World War, almost 34,000 civil defense systems had been built in Switzerland. During the Cold War, the civil defense systems were technically upgraded to protect them from radioactive fallout.
The only civil defense museum in Switzerland in Zurich offers an insight into this piece of Swiss history underground .
Basics
The legal basis for the construction of shelters can be found in Art. 45 ff. Of the Federal Act on Civil Protection and Civil Protection (BZG). Civil protection areas must be set up for new buildings (Art. 45 BZG). If the builder does not comply with this regulation, he has to pay a replacement tax, which must primarily benefit the financing of public shelters of the municipalities (Art. 47 Para. 2 BZG). In many Swiss private houses, private air raid shelters were set up with a filter system, beds and heavy reinforced concrete doors. Every homeowner with a shelter is responsible for maintaining and equipping the room. In peacetime these are used as normal basement rooms. In principle, every room must be fully operational within 24 hours, which also includes the storage of supplies. The local civil defense , the canton or private shelter inspectors are responsible for the periodic inspection of all systems, depending on the canton or region .
In addition to private houses, there are large civil defense bunkers. In Lucerne , for example, the Sonnenberg tunnel on the A2 was equipped so that it could be used as an air raid shelter for up to 20,000 people in the event of a crisis. With this, the goal of offering every Swiss person a shelter was achieved. There are currently around 270,000 personal protection rooms and 3,500 public protection systems in Switzerland. Some systems integrate hospitals, storage rooms or command posts, etc. 95 percent of the population have access to a shelter. The Switzerland thus achieved a protective space ratio of 120 percent - that is 1.2 protective spaces for every resident and every resident.
The major fire in Schweizerhalle in 1986 was a near-emergency . However, due to a risk assessment, the Basel population was ultimately not asked to refer to a shelter, but only to remain in closed above-ground rooms. A subsequent analysis showed that many of the shelters would not have been ready for occupancy on time due to their civilian use.
Serious incidents in which the endangered population was evacuated and housed in civil defense systems mainly occurred in the case of landslides , such as the disaster in Gondo in 2000 .
Other states
Even Singapore and Sweden have a very high shelter density of their population. These states also have concepts for the use of protective structures in times when they do not have to fulfill their protective function. The local administrations rent the rooms to associations, clubs and youth groups or as storage rooms.
technology
A shelter always consists of a shell and the associated technology such as lighting and life-support systems.
Shell
The shell has the task of protecting people from environmental influences. This can be contamination, but also pressure waves or heat.
Contamination protection
To protect against environmental contamination such as B. particles (smoke) or gases (CO, H₂S ...), the envelope including doors or ducts should be gas-tight.
Thermal protection
The shell including all feedthroughs should be heat-resistant. However, it is not enough to maintain the structure of the building as such; it must be ensured that the people inside the room are not harmed (e.g. by inadmissible heating of the air). The technical equipment must not be damaged either.
Protection against pressure waves
The shell including all feedthroughs should withstand a pressure wave. However, it is not enough to maintain the structure of the building as such; it must be ensured that the people inside the room are not harmed (e.g. through the propagation of the pressure wave inside flexible walls or the transmission of the shock to the Interior through rigid components). The technical equipment must not be damaged either.
equipment
Equipment includes facilities such as seats, toilets and lighting, but also life-support systems such as air conditioning.
Life support systems
air conditioning
Since the human body can only cool down by sweating, the room climate must be regulated with regard to temperature and humidity. When the humidity is high, the body's natural temperature regulation fails, so that collapse can occur even at low temperatures.
Breathing air supply systems
A distinction is made between insulation protection and environment-dependent systems. Environment-dependent systems are e.g. B. Filter systems that treat ambient air. Insulation protection is completely independent and is either fed from breathing air bottles or functions as a regeneration system.
When people are in an enclosed space, they enrich the air with CO 2 and consume oxygen. Even before there is impairment due to a lack of oxygen, the increased content of CO 2 leads to symptoms of poisoning, as CO 2 impairs the regulation of breathing.
Insulation protection: purge air system
With the purge air system, breathing air is dosed into the room from high pressure storage bottles. This ensures a constant exchange of air. The air leaves the room through a room pressure relief valve, so that pollutant gases and CO 2 generated by the occupants are constantly flushed out and oxygen is returned to the room atmosphere with the breathing air. At the same time, a desired, slight excess pressure is achieved. This prevents harmful gases from entering the room.
Isolation protection: regeneration system
With the regeneration system, the air in the room is constantly prepared. The gas, which has a toxic effect above certain concentrations, is bound by CO 2 absorption systems. Oxygen is added from high pressure bottles or chlorate candles. An overpressure in the room does not necessarily arise here. For this purpose, the system is to be supplemented with overpressure maintenance, which is fed from additional breathing air cylinders.
Depending on the ambient air: filter system
Filter systems suck in ambient air via fans and filter out pollutants. As with the purge air system, the air leaves the room via a room pressure relief valve, so that constant exchange is guaranteed and the desired room pressure is achieved. The advantage lies in the system costs. The disadvantage is that filters do not work with all gases and there is a risk of filter breakthroughs. If the type of contamination is known in advance (e.g. H₂S in refineries), filter systems are a possible solution. In the case of combustion gases, they are not to be provided due to the lack of forecasting options regarding the gas composition. Even in the complete absence of oxygen in the ambient air, filter systems do not work.
literature
- Regulation of the Air Force : Air Force Service Regulation 793 - Structural Air Protection Planning and implementation of structural measures in public air protection areas . Berlin 1939.
Web links
- Germany
- Switzerland
Individual evidence
- ^ The Gotthard road tunnel: technology on gotthardtunnel.ch
- ↑ http://www.iadclexicon.org/temporary-refuge
- ↑ https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/SPE-164948-MS
- ↑ Federal Act on Civil Protection and Civil Protection (Population and Civil Protection Act, BZG) of October 4, 2002 (as of January 1, 2011) (PDF; 172 kB). Visited on March 11, 2011.
- ^ "Schweizerhalle", report of the government council to the district administrator (Baselland), 1987