This manual is intended to provide guidance for engineers,
architects, building officials, and property owners to design
shelters and safe rooms in buildings. It presents information about
the design and construction of shelters in the work place, home, or
community building that will provide protection in response to
manmade hazards. The information contained herein will assist in
the planning and design of shelters that may be constructed outside
or within dwellings or public buildings. These safe rooms will
protect occupants from a variety of hazards, including debris
impact, accidental or intentional explosive detonation, and the
accidental or intentional release of a toxic substance into the
air. Safe rooms may also be designed to protect individuals from
assaults and attempted kidnapping, which requires design features
to resist forced entry and ballistic impact. This covers a range of
protective options, from low-cost expedient protection (what is
commonly referred to as sheltering-in-place) to safe rooms
ventilated and pressurized with air purified by
ultra-high-efficiency filters. These safe rooms protect against
toxic gases, vapors, and aerosols. The contents of this manual
supplement the information provided in FEMA 361, Design and
Construction Guidance for Community Shelters and FEMA 320, Taking
Shelter From the Storm: Building a Safe Room Inside Your House. In
conjunction with FEMA 361 and FEMA 320, this publication can be
used for the protection of shelters against natural disasters. This
guidance focuses on safe rooms as standby systems, ones that do not
provide protection on a continuous basis. To employ a standby
system requires warning based on knowledge that a hazardous
condition exists or is imminent. Protection is initiated as a
result of warnings from civil authorities about a release of
hazardous materials, visible or audible indications of a release
(e.g., explosion or fire), the odor of a chemical agent, or
observed symptoms of exposure in people. Although there are
automatic detectors for chemical agents, such detectors are
expensive and limited in the number of agents that can be reliably
detected. Furthermore, at this point in time, these detectors take
too long to identify the agent to be useful in making decisions in
response to an attack. Similarly, an explosive vehicle or suicide
bomber attack rarely provides advance warning; therefore, the
shelter is most likely to be used after the fact to protect
occupants until it is safe to evacuate the building. Two different
types of shelters may be considered for emergency use, standalone
shelters and internal shelters. A standalone shelter is a separate
building (i.e., not within or attached to any other building) that
is designed and constructed to withstand the range of natural and
manmade hazards. An internal shelter is a specially designed and
constructed room or area within or attached to a larger building
that is structurally independent of the larger building and is able
to withstand the range of natural and manmade hazards. Both
standalone and internal shelters are intended to provide emergency
refuge for occupants of commercial office buildings, school
buildings, hospitals, apartment buildings, and private homes from
the hazards resulting from a wide variety of extreme events. The
shelters may be used during natural disasters following the warning
that an explosive device may be activated, the discovery of an
explosive device, or until safe evacuation is established following
the detonation of an explosive device or the release of a toxic
substance via an intentional aerosol attack or an industrial
accident. Standalone community shelters may be constructed in
neighborhoods where existing homes lack shelters. Community
shelters may be intended for use by the occupants of buildings they
are constructed within or near, or they may be intended for use by
the residents of surrounding or nearby neighborhoods or designated
areas.
General
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