Much like how Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 became the paradigm for future planning, this recent event in Israel is going to be the touchstone for quite a while. Finally, someone addressed the ‘safe rooms’ or shelters that have been required in new construction for quite a while. I haven’t checked, but I believe this used to be a requirement of the Swiss as well, although they seem to have relaxed it as the Soviet Union disappeared.
I suppose that, if I had the room, I’d construct something similar but more for providing a secure room for valuables to be protected from fire rather than a hole to hide myself and loved ones in. Frankly, if there’s a situation where hiding from people is necessary then I’d probably be more likely to be standing somewhere inside/outside my house with an AR rather than crouching behind a steel door. And if I was hiding behind a steel door in a fortified room as a ‘last resort’ …well…the first person through that door is in for a bad time.
As for gun policies in Israel. I was always under the impression that in certain regions, along the border for example, the rules were a tad different. I suspect that after this recent development, there may be some rather large changes to the current policies.
Moral of the story, though, is that having your own bunker is never a bad thing.
The concept of a “Safe Room” to Hide in is Suicidal…. all the Enemy needs is some Gasoline and a Match, at the Air Vent, and the Rats come Running out. The same Principle applies to ANY ‘Fortification’, no matter how Large, Deep or Heavy the Construction. Gasoline in the Air Vent and they’re Done.
I suppose thats true if the attackers find the air vent and brought gasoline with them. But the rooms illustrated seem large enough that the air inside should last a reasonable amount of time until assistance arrives. Additionally, who is to say that any air venting is protected/shielded/hidden?
Gasoline? Just light the house on fire.
My shelter has two separate air intake/exhaust vents, each is hidden in a decorative rock crib (blast attenuation and to make pouring liquids in difficult).
If they can’t find it, they can’t torch it.
But, I also have an escape tunnel to allow egress, and an attack on their rear. It also doubles as a 50 yard indoor shooting range.
Safe rooms in Israel are originally designed to protect against rocket attacks and not from intruders.
This may change in the future in light of current events.
Thanks from Italy,
Daniele
There is a way to mitigate or even prevent this. Watch some of Atlas Shelters videos…the more expensive shelter ones. Your air vent pipe that extrudes to the surface is vertical, but has a horizontal or even upward sloping t-junction that leads into vent pipe above shelter. The vertical pipe is open at the bottom and extends to a gravel pit at the base of the shelter. Any fluid dumped into the pipe just drains into the ground. Maybe some vapors go up the horizontal pipe, but that is connected to a filtration system. Like i said, these are the more expensive bunkers.
This is the way.
Context Brother.
Sure a “safe room” isn’t the answer of a squad of dudes with breaching tools and explosives show up for you during a widespread scenario where they have hours.
Need 15 safe minutes for the cops to arrive during a home invasion, well that safe room is clutch.
The “safe rooms” were intended as NBC shelters, not to defend against a terrorist death-squad running through the town, kicking in doors and shooting everyone they encounter.
It makes sense to have NBC shelters, considering that chemical weapons have been used by non-friendly neighbors — Iran, Iraq, post-invasion al Qaeda in Iraq, etc. But clearly NBC defense is not enough.
I would not be at all surprised to see an updated “safe room” regulation that adds ballistic protection and covered firing positions to the list of mandatory features. Possibly with a requirement that there be a “back door” as well, leading to an escape tunnel to the exterior and/or to other “safe rooms” so that occupants can move under cover from a room that attackers are trying to breach.
Israel has a delusional gun control mindset. Guns are fine in the hands of soldiers, at least when they’re teenagers doing their mandatory service, but those same teenaged conscripts suddenly are not to be trusted with a rifle once they are 20-somethings and no longer living in a barracks, even if they’re in the reserve forces for the next few decades. The official reason supposedly being that reservists would be too likely to let their rifles be stolen (apparently not a problem with 18 year olds hitchhiking around the country with unloaded rifles?) and/or that they would go on vigilante shooting sprees at the drop of a hat.
I suspect that will all be changing very soon. The government has already announced they will be providing 10,000 rifles to “community defense groups” on rural kibbutzim and in towns with a large percentage of Arab residents or located near the West Bank or Gaza. No idea how long that will take however, and there are a substantial number of Israelis who are likely to be opposed to this — though probably a lot fewer now than on 6 October.
And I very much expect that Israel will be moving to the “Swiss model” of individual reservists keeping their military weapons — and a basic load of ammunition — in their homes when not on duty.
The laws and regulations for owning and carrying a pistol had been loosened several years ago — with no falling in of the sky nor outbreaks of mass hysteria — so it is possible that similar reforms of the laws regarding rifles may occur. I suspect the biggest obstacle to privately-owned rifles will be the economic protectionist mindset in Israel? No imports of $500 AR15s from US manufacturers for sale to individual Israeli citizens, as that would take business away from IWI, and so what if that means that community defense groups and private civilians have to go to the end of the waiting list while IWI fills Israeli and then foreign military orders first?
Every generation eventually finds out that a house that isn’t proof against an armed siege is a death trap.
Europeans with houses that withstood medieval knights look at American glass and sheetrock crackerboxes, and laugh.
Very true. Don’t be like the folks down in New Orleans sitting on their roofs waiting for Uncle Gummit to come gets em. To many people today die waiting. Someone once said ” If you want a helping hand. You have one on the end of each arm”.
One thing I’m always amazed at is how cities breed such useless people. They have absolutely no skill to adapt. They fall into a routine and once that’s interupted they go to pieces. The idea of going off into the woods. Scares them to death. I can no more see myself living in a huge city then I can see me living on the moon. People who live alone live longer. Are quite inventive and learn many crafts because of need. Much of the furniture in my home I built. My holsters and hunting bags are made by myself. I make knives. I grew up learning from my grandfather’s how to build” adapt or learn to do without. Most of my camp gear I made when I was reenacting. It is made to suit my needs. Not something I had to buy and adapt to another person’s idea. Self sufficiency is really an asset. And you might be surprised by what you can create.
Aesop: And when the earthquakes hit, they stop laughing.
As if you can’t build for both problems.
American homes aren’t designed to be very earthquake-resistant either, even in Califrutopia.
As the local jacktards hereabouts find out every decade or so.
(What will happen when there’s a quake along the New Madrid Fault, or frankly anywhere east of the Sierra Nevada range, is going to be a lesson for the books.)
In the parable of The Three Little Pigs, the fourth pig was an American, whose stick-built house was mostly glass and sheetrock.
The Big Bad Wolf reported that he was delicious when last encountered.
That brick house that withstood the huffing and puffing is going to come crashing down when the New Madrid lets go.
The idea of requiring a safe room to be built into a private residence or even business (as an option) is a good idea. Architects can design a safe space that takes advantage of where a home would collapse or set on fire would be. Tornado alley safety feature would be a good selling point in the future sale of home. As pointed out – what are you looking to protect yourself from and design the safe room shell to take advantage of that knowledge..
Maybe insurance companies could give you a break on insurance cost if this were in place.
When I built my house, the additional cost for the basement shelter (PF >1,000,000 thanks to a slight miscalculation), and the escape tunnel, added less than $3,000 to the build cost. This was ~15 years ago so it’s likely $5k now.
Of course, I did a lot of the finishing work myself. But the dirt moving etc was cheap.
In the ’60s, when my Father was in the Air Force, and the DOD had an “Office of Civil Defense” there was a proposal made to the Congress to make a Tax Subsidy for Fallout Shelters in new and existing Homes. Like in Flight-ER-Docs comment, the Cost of incorporating even very Heavy Fallout Protection in New Construction is Negligible. Another OCD Program was for a simple method for Shelter Analysis of Existing Structures – any Multistory, Reinforced-Concrete Building with a Basement is a Very Effective Shelter even before provisions for Filtered Ventilation are made.
All of these Programs were Discarded many Decades ago; while in Russia, Shelter Construction/Renovation is Ongoing, and most Major Cities have accommodations for the majority of the Population.
WRT the gun laws in Israel:
In 2003 or so I was offered a teaching (tenured) position at a hospital in Beersheva… I was giving it some considerable thought, and casually inquired about the difficulty in getting firearms: I assumed that they were at least available, if not inexpensive.
Turns out, nope. I would not be eligible to own firearms, much less carry concealed. Not a common thing in Israel. And no non-citizens, at all, and only citizens who had served in the IDF.
So…go into a target rich environment, and be a target? No thank you.