Safe Rooms and Shelters: Protecting People Against Terrorist Attacks

By Federal Emergency Management Agency

Guidance for property owners, engineers, architects, and building officials to design shelters and safe rooms in homes and public buildings.
This manual presents information about the design and construction of shelters in the workplace, home, or community building that will provide protection in response to manmade hazards. Because the security needs and types of construction vary greatly, users may select the methods and measures that best meet their individual situations. The use of experts to apply the methodologies contained in this document is encouraged.

This document will discuss the design of shelters to protect against Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive (CBRE) attacks. Fallout shelters that are designed to protect against the effects of a nuclear weapon attack are not addressed in this publication. The risks of death or injury from CBRE attacks are not evenly distributed throughout the United States. This manual will guide the reader through the process of designing a shelter to protect against CBRE attacks. The intent of this manual is not to mandate the construction of shelters for CBRE events, but rather to provide design guidance for persons who wish to design and build such shelters.

The design and planning necessary for extremely high-capacity shelters that may be required for large, public venues, such as stadiums or amphitheaters, are beyond the scope of this design manual. An owner or operator of such a venue may be guided by concepts presented in this document, but detailed guidance concerning extremely high-capacity shelters is not provided. The design of such shelters requires attention to issues such as egress and life safety for a number of people that are orders of magnitude greater than those proposed for a shelter designed in accordance with the guidance provided herein.

The intent of this manual is not to override or replace current codes and standards, but rather to provide important guidance of best practices (based on current technologies and scientific research) where none has been available. No known building, fire, life safety code, or engineering standard has previously attempted to provide detailed information, guidance, and recommendations concerning the design of CBRE shelters for protection of the general public. Therefore, the information provided herein is the best available at the time this manual was published. Designing and constructing a shelter according to the criteria in this manual does not mean that the shelter will be capable of withstanding every possible event. The design professional who ultimately designs a shelter should state the limiting assumptions and shelter design parameters on the project documents.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1510750843
• ISBN13: 9781510750845
• Release Date: November 2019
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 264 Pages