Invention of own technology and strategies in rescue operation- an urgent need

Translation from Himu's- উদ্ধারকাজে নিজস্ব প্রযুক্তি ও কৌশল উদ্ভাবন আশু প্রয়োজন

The collapse of Rana Plaza has engraved a lasting sore in our mind but it’s quite urgent to think about the immediate reaction if such happens again. The policymakers urgently need to start their homework that what and how we react in such incidences. And if we know from the professional and volunteer rescuers about their experiences and limitations through public hearing, can be incorporated in this homework.

More than one reports will be prepared and submitted on Savar collapse, and like the reports in the past, will be dumped and buried under thick dust covers. Since the crash has clearly happened due to remissness and corruption by the authority, there is no sense of giving the same authority the responsibility of any pertinent policy making. Thus, what’s coming ahead needs to be determined by informing the people in phase by phase.

Historically we've experienced lacking in technology and strategies of rescue operation. However, it should not be expected that there wouldn't be some mistakes in such circumstance. However, the designated people are responsible to take the mistakes into critically considerable learning and to ensure it doesn't happen again.

I’ve observed certain issues and felt necessity of discussion. I’m sure the readers have also observed issues which should be listed down at one page. Kindly add your observations in the comment field underneath.

1. There are a number of dangerous equipment functional in a garments factory. Apart from heat producing generators and boilers, hot water pipes and steam pipes are also there. And on top of that, bulk of flammable fabrics is there. Hence, if a running factory is collapsed, the provisions of fire outbreak increase the risk of victims and rescuers to a multiple degree. In such situations pumping pure Oxygen into the rubble increased the risk of fire outbreak given that Oxygen helps combustion. Once the fire outbreak is started, accumulated Oxygen in different pockets of the rubble get finished very soon and the victims die within 4-5 minutes by choking. Carbon Monoxide produced due to combustion in low Oxygen bearing environment faster the death of confined victims. In such situation, instead of pumping pure Oxygen, outer air can be pumped inside after purifying through air filter. It should be well cared that the delivery pressure of the blower is not very high. Otherwise, the dust inside the rubble will start flying.

2. At this moment our rescuers don’t have any technology to detect the location of the confined. The way they have been working is as far as they can go inside, yelling- asking if there is anybody around. Who have ability to respond, the rescuers reach them quickly and evacuate. But the process is a slower one, and the wounded folks may not be able to respond enough loudly to attract attention of the rescuers, hence it’s important to seek assistance of technology and strategies. And the universities may come forward in such initiatives.

Human body temperature can be detected from distance. But it’s a bit difficult in a collapsed building given there is too much heat conductive articles and the concrete absorbs heat during the day time. Besides, heat signature scanner is highly expensive. Having said that, an assignment for manufacturing cheaper heat signature scanner can be asked amongst the university students.

The second method is that the garments workers wear RFIDP chip with passive transponder in the form of a badge with their uniforms. It is comparatively cheaper and the rescuers can locate alive or dead worker within a radius of certain meters if they have it with them. But the challenge of the system is it cannot distinguish between alive and dead and its low-level electromagnetic waves are disrupted due to dump of concrete.

The third method is to ask each individual worker to carry a whistle along. In case they are stuck, rather than continuously yelling, they can blow the whistle in a regular interval. Concurrently, the engineering universities may think to make a prototype of a machine which can detect sound and range of such whistle.

If the government is kind enough to allocate some fund for such research, it may help to reduce death toll in future.