Study of Past Significant Earthquake Search and Rescue Activities from Damaged Houses for the Development of a Rescue Training Program Catering to General Public

Abstract

In the event of a major earthquake in Japan, residents play an important role in lifesaving activities. This study aims to clarify under what circumstances residents participated in rescue operations based on a survey of records of firefighters and a questionnaire of residents in the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake, for the development of a public rescue training program. We then draw comparison with the rescue operations of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake to clarify the differences between the actions of specialized rescue teams and residents focusing on the degree of danger and the time taken for the rescue operation. As a result, we identified that not only specialized rescue teams but also residents participated in the rescue operations at many sites of a totally destroyed house, and it became clear that aforementioned rescue operations were dangerous for untrained residents to deal with. The necessity of a rescue training program for the residents was confirmed.