STUDY ON SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONSIN THE 1995 HANSHIN-AWAJI EARTHQUAKE- ANALYSIS OF LABOR WORK IN RELATION WITH BUILDING TYPES

摘要

In the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, 5,500 human lives were lost mostly due to collapse of residential buildings. This study aims to review search and rescue (SAR) records of the fire departments in the severely damaged municipalities and to analyze labor work and time dependent survival rates in relation with building types. Search and rescue records were collected from 6 fire stations in Kobe City, and fire departments of Ashiya, Nishinomiya, Takarazuka, and Amagasaki cities and Tsuna region of Awaji Island. Approximately 1,900 cases of SAR operation contain date and time of action, time spent, address, building type, number of people rescued alive and dead, number of personnel, and available tools and equipment. The amount of time spent for one case of SAR was found to depend upon structural type, number of people rescued, number of rescue personnel and days after the earthquake. Survival rates along hours and days after the earthquake occurrence depict that collapsed multi-story RC or steel buildings tend to keep entrapped people alive longer than collapsed wooden buildings.