What does this look like? If you thought packing material for shipping, you are not far off. It is not much of a riddle, but the answer comes later.
On Disaster Prevention Day, September 1, Palaceside Building also ran an earthquake-response drill. The main task this time was setting up an aid station. The opening photo is one of the handy items we used.
About 50 people took part: staff of Mainichi Building Co. and employees of the firms contracted for facilities, security and cleaning.
The drill began at 10:00 a.m. on the assumption of a magnitude-6-upper earthquake. After personal protection and safety checks, each team confirmed first-response steps in the manual (checking whether facilities and equipment showed any
abnormality, and so on).
Around 10:20 the exercise moved to setting up an aid station in the space beside the first-floor east main entrance. Resin mats about two centimeters thick and blue tarps were laid on the floor, and stretchers, folding cots, an AED and other gear were brought from storage and assembled on the spot (photo at right).
Among them, making its first appearance, was the item in the opening photo: a simple inflatable air mattress (air bed). Once inflated, it cannot be deflated and reused. It is disposable.
We actually inflated one; here is how it went.
First the collapsed mat is spread out and air is fed through a valve at the end. We used a bicycle pump.
After that it is just keep pumping. Keep at it. The mat is divided into some 30 chambers; air flows into the next chamber in turn, and valves stop backflow. If one chamber tears, the others do not leak. A clever design. Once it is about half full, pumping from the other end seems more efficient.
Someone lay down on the “finished product.” It was said to be quite comfortable.
Being unused to it, we took more than ten minutes to fill one. In a disaster even women would need to be able to inflate them, so we decided to secure an electric pump. You do not really understand how something handles until you try it. A good experience.
We will keep drilling and aim for a still safer, more reassuring building.