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The Safe Room Demo Here
Safe Rooms: A Design
Primer
The
concept of the Safe Room arose in response to the increased
risk of kidnaping and terrorist attacks on high-profile
or wealthy individuals and their families and aides. Typically
the intent of the Safe Room is to provide short-term protection
for the occupants until help arrives or the attackers leave
the scene. In extreme, hostage type scenarios, the safe
Room may be required for an extended period.
Typically
Safe Rooms, also known as panic rooms, are fitted with warning
devices that communicate with persons outside the Safe Room
or threatened building. Upon entering the Safe Room, the
occupant triggers an alarm, or phones the police or a security
agent. Audible alarms may alert the intruders to the fact
that the situation is known to security forces. Consequently,
unless these alarms were disabled prior to the assault,
the attacker knows that he has a limited time to complete
his mission.
It
is important, therefore, to emphasise that, other than in
hostage situations, Safe Rooms are intended to be used for
limited periods only, often as little as a few hours or
so. Unless a particularly determined attack is anticipated,
they are often designed with this limitation in mind. Accordingly,
except in unusual circumstances, a Safe Room should not
be confused with a high-security vault and may not necessarily
resistant to all types of attack. As psychological as
well as physical force plays a role in an attack, the Safe
Room is not merely a bullet-resistant enclosure. Rather,
it is a space offering multiple levels of security designed
to meet anticipated threats.
General
Design Criteria:
As with
all construction, the design of a Safe Room responds to
particular criteria, in this case relating to the level
of risk that is anticipated. The design must also respond
to such practical matters as costs and available space.
Clearly there may be a difference between the design of
a Safe Room for an important political leader and that of
an individual who may fear some unspecified threat. A modest
Safe Room may be resistant to handguns and physical attack
only, whereas a more elaborate Safe Room may be designed
to resist greater ballistic forces as well as chemicals
and gaseous matter.
Typically
the anticipated end user(s) of the Safe Room meet with a
security consultant to evaluate the potential risks at the
specific location where the Safe Room is to be located.
A professional security consultant working in the industry
will be well appraised of the current tactics and sophistication
of an attacker and be able to advise on the design accordingly.
A petty felon breaking into a residence in a wealthy neighborhood,
for example, may arrive armed with a handgun or other small
weapon. A determined terrorist intent on causing political
turmoil, will more likely have researched the target location,
have become familiar with the level of security in place
and arrive with sophisticated weapons and electronic equipment
capable of overriding or otherwise getting past some of
the security that is in place.
Once
the level of risk has been determined by the Security Consultant,
a set of design criteria can be established. Typically an
Architect is then called in to provide the detail design
and documentation of the Safe Room - Panic Room itself.
Selecting a Location for the Safe Room:
Clearly
it is essential that the targeted person can quickly get
to the Safe Room at the time of the threat. Ideally, once
the intruder’s presence has been detected, he should
be able to do so without having to confront or show himself
to his attackers. Multiple routes to a Safe Room - Panic
Room are, therefore, desirable, though not always practical.
As the
Safe Room may never actually see service, people are usually
reluctant to give up prime spaces in their homes for this
particular use, and often suggest the use of Cellars or
Basements for this purpose. However, in a multi-storey building
such as a townhouse or brownstone, a Basement Safe Room
may become inaccessible to a resident on an upper floor,
if the attackers breach the building at the ground floor.
The occupant, in this case, would have to pass the intruders
on the stairs, in order to get to the Safe Room below. Conversely,
at attic Safe Room may not be ideal in cases where the intruders
enter via the roof.
Depending
on the configuration of the residence or building where
the protection is required, a given location for the Safe
Room may not be ideal in all cases. Again, the advice of
a professional Security Consultant will be important in
identifying the entry risks, and locating the Safe Room
optimally with this information in mind. In larger buildings
where there may be multiple routes or staircases to reach
the Safe Room - Panic Room, the issue of location may be
less problematic.
Where
space is not an issue, and the budget is generous, “concealed”
Safe Rooms offer an additional barrier to detection of the
room’s occupant. A concealed Safe Room - Panic Room
might be located behind a paneled wall, one panel which
operates on concealed hinges giving access to the protected
area on the opposite side. In such cases, it is important
to design the panel such that no hinges, locks or other
operating hardware are visible from the outside.
Architectural Design Criteria:
In some
specialized cases, the end user may have the luxury of designing
one or more spaces to serve exclusively as a Safe Room -
Panic Room. Needless to say, however, few people can afford
to have ‘dead space’ that may never be used.
The more common approach, particularly in urban situations
where floor area is at a premium, is to have one room, often
a closet or a bathroom, do double-duty as a Safe Room. In
these cases, there is no loss of real-estate to the intended
purpose and the full area of the home or office can be utilized
normally.
In the
case of the double-duty Safe Room - Panic Room, security
features, including bullet-resistance, sound-proofing and
surveillance equipment, are built into the room as required.
The room is then designed and finished normally, albeit
around the concealed, protective features. An Architect
plays an important role in disguising the security features,
and integrating them into the design such that they are
available in an emergency, but otherwise visually and functionally
discreet.
Because
closets tend to be relatively small, they can be a relatively
economic space for conversion. However, if an attack is
prolonged, an end user who suffers from claustrophobia may
find the diminutive size of the enclosed space to be as
troubling as the threat outside the Safe Room itself. Bathrooms,
because of their modest size, and because they are often
located internally are another common room that does double-duty
as a Safe Room. Bathrooms also have the advantage of having
water and other plumbing fixtures that may be beneficial
during prolonged occupancy.
Safe
Rooms - Panic Rooms Construction & Features:
Walls
and Ceilings: Wall construction spanning directly
from floor to ceiling is often favored because of the structural
continuity of the framing. Unit masonry (e.g. brickwork
or blockwork), can be effective in stopping bullets, but
prolonged attack with sledgehammers can eventually dislodge
individual masonry units. Steel stud walls, braced with
additional reinforcing ties can be faced with steel sheet
and/or proprietary bullet-resistant materials such as Kevlar.
These in turn, are covered with sheetrock, tile or other
decorative finishes normal to the subject room. Steel and
Kevlar panels have the advantage of being available in large
sheet sizes, and minimize the number of joints which can
be the weak point of any assembly. To minimize this weakness,
it is common to overlap the resistant sheets or to reinforce
the back-side of each joint with similar materials.
Where
construction does not include concrete floors, ceilings
can be constructed similar to stud walls. In all cases it
is important not to overlook penetrations that may be made
for light fixtures, power points or plumbing pipes. Ductwork
passing through protected walls should also be carefully
considered to ensure that the security is not breached,
or that poisonous gasses are not forced into the Safe Room
by this route.
Floors:
Concrete floors are ideal. In other forms of floor construction,
(e.g. wood), it is important to provide supplementary protection
suitable to the anticipated level of attack. As Safe Room
construction often uses heavy materials concentrated in
a small area, it is important to ensure that the floor is
designed or reinforced to take this heavy load.
Doors:
Doors are one of the most critical and complicated aspects
of the Safe Room - Panic Room design. A bullet-resistant
door with internal steel framing can weigh several hundred
pounds, yet it must be designed to operate smoothly, easily
and without fail in an emergency situation. The hardware
must be selected to provide substantial, secure locking
without compromising the smooth operation of the door itself.
Most importantly, it must allow the door to be secured quickly,
preferably from a single control point. The hardware should
not be capable of being overridden or tampered with from
the outside.
Sound
Insulation: The attackers may try to verbally “psyche
out” the Safe Room’s occupants. Effective sound
insulation will limit the ability for unwanted communication
of this sort. Conversely, it will also prevent the intruders
from hearing phone or radio conversations carried out by
the occupant with security or police forces.
Miscellaneous Safe Room - Panic Room Accessories:
Well-designed
Safe Rooms - Panic Rooms should contain the following items:
- Cameras
& Monitors: Concealed cameras located outside
the room enable the Safe Room’s occupant to secretly
monitor the movement and numbers of attackers on a monitor
screen. It is common to locate one visible camera outside
the room. An attacker disabling the exposed camera may
not think to look for other hidden cameras, giving the
Safe Room occupant an advantage in that situation.
- Gas
Masks: Gas Masks are necessary in the event that
the attackers force poisonous gas into the Safe Room.
Where an odorless gas might be used, an electronic device
may be used to detect any noxious materials.
- Bottled
Water & Non-Perishable Foods: There should
be a small provision of bottled water and non-perishable
foods (such as dried trail mix or similar nourishment)
for the occupants.
- Ventilation:
It is important to consider a protected means of ventilating
the Safe room with fresh air.
- Radio
Communication: It should be assumed that attackers
will disable land line phone service prior to entry. Safe
Rooms lined with steel may interfere with cell phone transmissions.
Accordingly, radio communication to the outside world
is important. Typically a small radio transmitter is hard-wired
directly to a concealed antenna outside the steel-lined
enclosure. The radio can be pre-programed to signal the
police or a security service in an emergency.
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