• Individual preparedness
• Safety recommendations before an earthquake at home
• Safety recommendations before an earthquake in official buildings
• Safety recommendations before an earthquake at schools

Individual preparedness

You should think to the operations that should be done during an earthquake, you may be in the house, gathering’s saloon, theather, Stadium, with your friends, in the mood of driving or you may be busy in doing other usual activities. Your planning and preparedness make you to be calm but effective. You should know the nearest relief and rescue centers, such as clinic, fire and Police Station.
You should prepare, a bag including the most necessary supplies to be used after an earthquake put it in a safe place where accessing to it may be easy. After the earthquake the most important needs are eating, hygienic points, rescue operations and helping others, for this operations we need some supplies that their collecting may be impossible after an earthquake. So, it is better to prepare them before occurring and put them in a parcel and in a safe place. With these equipment’s you can protect your own and your family after occurring and before the reach of rescue and relief workers for 72 hours or more than this time in the house, working’s place or your authomobile. You should prepare the necessary needs based on your recognition, in the house, working’s place and your own automobile.

Necessary supplies:

• First-aid kit includes bandages and gauzes, sterilized instruments, burn ointment, Antibiotic, Asprine, a small pair of skissors, eye drop and necessary medicines which any of family members regularly uses.
• A notebook including necessary phone numbers of relief and rescue centers.
• Flash light and fresh batteries.
• Transistorical radio with charged batteries.
• The small capsule of extinguisher.
• Heavy glove and tight shoe.
• Personal sanitations supplies (towel, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, washer powder, napkins)
• Pliers and screwdriver, shorel and a small pickax.
• The water: store at least 4 liters of water for each person in an unbreakable container and occasionally, containers should be controlled and changed based on freshness and hyginene .
• Food: includes food for 3 days based on the number of family’s members such as canned foods (vegetables and fruit), compote, biscuit and candy and etc.

The safety advices, before the earthquake at home

Each person can protect his/her life and relatives against the earthquake hazards by learning the safety recommendations and applying them.

The safety measures:

• Check your house to see whether it is damageable against an earthquake.The fire that resulted from the earthquake can be created because of breakage in oil’s and gase’s pipes or from separating of supplie’s junctions. So, you should fasten heater and other kerosene supplies and gas burner by nut and screw and the rest available objects, in its place. If possible you should use flexible junctions. You should fasten heavy objects like books and hanging plants, lamps in their place
• Put big and heavy objects in lower part of shelves and fasten articles to the wall according to safety procedures
• Heavy objects and tall house hold objects such as refrigerator, free-standing cabinets, and bookcases are counted as insecure objects that you should fasten them in their place. If they aren’t secure, you should get away from them during an earthquake
• Check heater’s pipe and gable roofs, extinct the possibility of their falling during an earthquake. You should take the objects that are in external parts of building such as cooler, hanging plants near the window and foodstuffs containers and put them in safe place
• Don’t pour dangerous material such as chemical materials, acids, sterilized materials in French containers. In construction affairs or repairing old buildings you should follow structural codes for reducing earthquake hazards
• Prepare a map from your house in order to know the safe places, exits and the place of water and electricity and gas at main switches
• Put your bag containing necessary supplies in a safe place, where accessing to it is easy, and also aware family members of its hiding place.

The family members should:

• All members should learn how to cut off the electric current and close water, gas and etc, at main switches
• As much as possible they should try to learn first-aid, because after an intensive earthquake, clinics and hospitals will be crowded and as a result the access to medical possibilities will be difficult
• Occasionally family members should make a scene of a supposed earthquake in the house and practice safety and prevention procedures against an earthquake by the help of all family members
• They should extinct probable earthquake’s accidents in their house, for example they should change the place of their sleeping to some where away from windows, check exits and corridors and transfer objects that may close these places to another places.
• They should know the emergency exits, alarm bells and fire extinguishers in order to use them at suitable time immediately and it is important that they can help each other.
• They should know their neighborhood’s skills, because it’s may extend how many days until rescues group arrive.
• Occasionally, also they must consult with family members about the earthquake and other natural difficulties and memorize necessary recommendations.

Safety recommendations before an earthquake in official buildings

There are some old administrative buildings and without necessary resistance against an intense earthquake. In such cases should consult with experts and administrators for making the buildings resistant.

• Check decorative pieces of rooms’ ceils in order to correct setting up
• Fluorescent bulbs on the rooms’ ceils should be fastened in their place and at necessary time be controlled by two wires in their both sides
• Lamps should be fastened and secured on the ceil
• Inside building cooler’s canals and airvents should be firmed in their place in correct way so as to reduce the possibility of their falling during an earthquake
• Loudspeakers that are set up in different places of corridor should be fastened so as to reduce the possibility of their shaking during an earthquake. In fact their presence is necessary. Since building’s electric current may be disconnected and some people be buried under the debris, in this case necessary messages can be send to them
• The place of putting communicational and dispatching systems should be checked exactly, and gain confidence of their safety
• The creation of dispatching system inside building through wireless and portable phones in every part can be useful for easing gathering information about people and the situation of the place
• Put fire extinguishers along with the guide of how to use them in determined distances, and make employees aware of their places
• Recognize insecure places inside building such as laboratories, workshops etc and perform safety operations for them and also fasten insecure objects in their place
• By controlling and cooperation of whole units of dangerous and inflammable materials should be kept outside of administrative buildings
• Prepare a list of employee’s names and their rooms in all floors
• Prepare a map from all important places of building, rooms, corridors, stairs and warehouses position
• Prepare a list of including whole possessions and department’s properties for estimating probable damages after an earthquake
• Prepare a list of all necessary phone numbers such as fire stations, the Red Crescent, hospitals and clinics specially, the nearest place to your work’s place (administrative building)
• By cooperation of employees in different units, control big administrative instruments like, computers, editing and copy system by metalic fastenings or firm belts, because there is the possibility of their displacing during an earthquake or they may close doors and exits
• By cooperation of employees, shelves, files and bookcases should be fastened to wall by using suitable fastenings
• Don’t put heavy objects and the rest objects on archive shelves that might fall on you
• Ask the employees not to put their work’s table near French windows under the lamps and hanging objects
• Firm partitions in their places by metallic fastenings in all units
• Be sure that employees lock administrative files when they don’t use them
• Cooperating with each other, control the objects that have the possibility of spark and firing like heater because of moving
• The archives and warehouse are the points that are exposed to danger due to presence of inflammable materials after an intensive earthquake and probable firing
• You should try to keep away flammable materials such as oil and gas from the flammable objects such as paper gunny, nylon sacks and boxes and observe safety operations against firing in this places and also try to equip this places with fire extinguishers
• Whereas laboratory is the place of keeping dangerous and flammable materials, it’s necessary to observe recommendations that is similar in archives and warehouse, certainly put dangerous and flammable laboratory’s materials in unbreakable or plastic containers and put them in air-tight shelves.

All employees should:

• All employees should study the design of evacuation of their department and notice to designed suitable place after an evacuation
• When they enter the room they should know exits and the place of fire extinguisher and first-aid kit exactly
• When they go from one place to another place they must know stairways and emergency stairs
• They should put personal and necessary supplies with a pair of shoes in a separated box, inside their table in order to access to them easily
• They should have all necessary phone numbers in a special card, always in their wallet
• Under their table should be a special place (180 square centimeter) for danger’s time.

The following points are important

• The necessary educations in the field of the First-aid by the help of the Red Cresent
• Encouraging employees for recognizing exactly all important parts of building, specially insecure places and emergency ways
• Educating employees for using fire distinguishers in necessary time and the method of extinguishing the fire by using them.
• Informing all employees of an organization of the place of water, gas and electro-meter in order to cut off their current quickly, if necessary
• Educating employees of different units about providing necessary supplie’s box during an earthquake, putting them in available and distinguished places.

Safety recommendations before an earthquake at schools

Considering valnerability and the number and distribution of students throughout the country, if an intensive earthquake takes place during instructional times at schools and there won’t be preparation for facing this phenomenon, there will be much losses. So the education of safety recommendations against hazards is necessary affair for country’s students.

Surrounding’ safety measures:

• You should strength big windows and french doors by the stick in the sign of multiplication or as much as possible with sticky selefons for reducing the possibility of their throwing after breakage.
• Sometimes aside from falling of debris, people are buried in some parts of building because of destruction of door’s lock. So you should control the lock of all exits and remove their deficiency or change them at necessary time
• You must extinct the probable danger of falling and shooting of many things with their displacing and fastening in their own place. You should fasten the junction of heavy and hanging objects such as (hanging lamp, framed pictures, blackboard, refrigerator, water heater to wall), Also people shouldn’t sit under or near these objects. -Heavy, breakable and fallable objects should put on the place near to earth
• Get away from flammable materials that are near heater and water heater and other gas or oil instruments
• The objects inside classes and corridors should put so as don’t close moving way and also their displacing don’t close exits during an earthquake
• Exits and usual and emergency stairs should be empty of obstacles
• The key and main switches of electrical wiring and gas, water plumbing, should be controlled by experts and parents for extincting probable cutting off the water and appearing firing after an earthquake
• Poisonous or flammable chemical materials should be transferred into air-tight shelves. It is advisable to change french containers that are special for keeping these materials with plastic and unbreakable containers
• Prevent falling of books during an earthquake by putting protector rod or fence in front of bookcase shelves.

The students should:

• The students should know their own school’s maps and specify in it, places and exits and the place of putting water and gas at main switches and electro-meter
• They must be aware of the place of First-aid kit and fire-extinguisher and alarm bells, to use them in necessary time
• They should know the procedure of fire extinguishing and doing rescue and relief operations and First -aids as much as possible
• Extinct the possibility of occurring incidents because of earthquake in the class. For example consider the distance between your seat and desk with windows and french doors
• The students must learn to cut off electric current and close gas and water at main switches.