Ukraine subway becomes "air-raid shelter" for people to take shelter! Don't underestimate the civil air defense projects around you

After the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Kiev metro began to be used as an air-raid shelter, and a large number of people flocked in to take shelter. It is a common practice to use the subway as a wartime air defense shelter. Do you know about the civil air defense projects around you?

Compiled by New Media Editor Fang Yongzhen

"What era is this? Why are we still building air-raid shelters?" Many people will express such doubts when they see the civil air defense signs around them.

The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war has proved that even in peacetime, we still need to face up to the importance of civil air defense projects. Air raids are an important form of modern warfare and one of the means of killing. Various high-performance bombs emerge in an endless stream, while civil air defense projects have better protective functions and can effectively protect the lives of personnel.

▲After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, subway stations in the capital Kiev were immediately opened free of charge for citizens to use as air-raid shelters. (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency video screenshot)

▲Affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, ground buildings were damaged by air strikes, and Ukrainian people took refuge in air-raid shelters in the basement. (Photo source: Screenshot of Shangguan News)

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Civil air defense projects are actually around you and me

Many people don't know much about civil air defense. Civil air defense is the abbreviation of "people's air defense", which refers to underground protective buildings built to ensure the shelter of personnel and materials, civil air defense command, and medical rescue in wartime, as well as basements built in combination with ground buildings that can be used for air defense in wartime. Civil air defense projects are important facilities for preventing sudden attacks by the enemy, effectively sheltering personnel and materials, and preserving war potential. They are an important part of national defense.

There are several commonly used classification methods for civil air defense projects: according to the resistance level, the project can be directly called a certain level of civil air defense project; according to wartime use, it can be divided into command and communication, personnel shelter, hospitals, first aid stations, warehouses, garages, etc.; according to peacetime use, it can be divided into shopping malls, amusement parks, hotels, theaters (halls), etc.; according to the construction method, it can be divided into two categories: excavation type engineering and pit tunnel engineering.

▲Civil air defense project logo (Photo source: "China National Geographic" WeChat official account)

Civil air defense projects may seem far away from us, but they are actually closely related to our lives. When you go to an underground mall to buy something, you may enter a civil air defense project; when you go to an underground parking lot to park your car, you may enter a civil air defense project; when you walk through an underground passage, you may also enter a civil air defense project; the subway under construction should also be designed with a civil air defense part to improve the city's defense capabilities.

Have you noticed these civil defense projects around you?

1. Subway

When people travel by subway, they will naturally feel safe, comfortable and fast. Everyone thinks that the subway is a municipal project and an ideal modern means of transportation. But few people delve into the fact that the subway is also a civil air defense project that combines peacetime and wartime. According to Article 14 of the Civil Air Defense Law of the People's Republic of China: The construction of underground transportation trunk lines and other underground projects in cities should take into account the needs of civil air defense.

my country's early subways were designed as civil air defense projects. Their main function was to facilitate the rapid evacuation of urban personnel during wartime, with normal traffic operations being only an auxiliary function. When Beijing first built its subway, air defense was an important consideration. Starting with the construction of Beijing Subway Line 8 in 1992, my country's subway construction began to shift toward "mainly focusing on normal traffic operations while taking civil air defense into consideration." This shift reduced the impact of civil air defense on subway construction and normal use functions, and promoted the rapid development of subway construction.

The "Civil Air Defense Design Specifications for Rail Transit Projects" issued and implemented by the National Civil Air Defense Office in 2009 clearly states that rail transit projects that take into account the needs of civil air defense must be uniformly planned and designed synchronously, and should be included in the urban civil air defense protection system. The civil air defense design of rail transit projects should fully utilize the peacetime facilities and equipment of rail transit projects on the premise of ensuring peacetime use, and improve the civil air defense protection function in wartime.

▲The closed door in the subway (Photo source: "Lanzhou Civil Defense" WeChat public account)

So, can the subway also serve the purpose of civil defense?

Once an emergency situation requires, the entrance and exit of the subway station will be sealed to ensure the safety of the people. Therefore, subway stations are generally built more than ten meters or even twenty meters underground, and the buildings are generally very strong. This depth and strength are enough to cope with the effects of preset weapons during war. So if a war breaks out today, the subway can be used as an air-raid shelter.

2. Underground garages, shopping malls, etc.

In cities without subways, underground parking lots, underground shopping malls and other basements are civil defense facilities that are closer to citizens.

▲Underground garage that also takes into account civil defense functions (Photo source: "China National Geographic" WeChat official account)

The biggest difference between a civil air defense basement and an ordinary basement is that a civil air defense basement can be used to defend against air raids and attacks by nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons in wartime. Therefore, it is very different from an ordinary basement in terms of engineering design, construction, and equipment and facilities.

Ordinary basements only need to be designed according to their functions and loads, and they can be fully or half-buried underground. In addition to considering their normal use, air-raid shelters must also be designed according to wartime standards. Therefore, civil air defense basements are completely buried underground. Due to the heavy loads borne by wartime projects, the roof, exterior walls, floor, columns and beams of civil air defense basements are larger than those of ordinary basements. In addition, for important civil air defense projects, a horizontal bullet-proof layer must be set on the roof to resist attacks from missiles and bombs.

Specifically, there are the following differences between civil air defense projects and ordinary basements:

(1) Civil air defense projects have a thick coating that can resist various sources of damage, such as shock waves, light radiation, nuclear radiation, and conventional explosion fragments. The roof, side walls, and floors of civil air defense basements are thicker and stronger than those of ordinary basements. In addition to bearing weight, they also have a certain ability to resist shock waves and conventional bomb blast waves.

(2) Civil air defense basements are airtight in structure and equipped with gas filtering and ventilation equipment. Civil air defense projects with "three-defense" (referring to defense against nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons) facilities can also prevent the hazards of air contamination by toxic agents, radioactive agents, and biological warfare agents, and ensure the needs of sheltered personnel for clean air and entry and exit of civil air defense projects, which are not available in ordinary basements.

(3) Civil air defense basements are more secure than ordinary basements. When there is a fire or aerosols of various toxic agents or biological warfare agents around civil air defense projects, personnel inside the isolation works can stay safely for more than a few hours. Civil air defense projects can prevent personnel inside from being harmed by the collapse of surrounding buildings or shrapnel from air raids.

(4) Civil air defense projects have a good earthquake-proof effect, which can reduce or prevent the damage to the people inside from earthquakes. Civil air defense basements have outdoor safe entrances and exits, while ordinary basements do not.

3. Air-raid shelter

Another important type of civil defense facility is a specially built air-raid shelter or air-raid basement. It is the main place to provide shelter for personnel and materials during wartime. It can also be used as a command post and shelter for disaster prevention and rescue in peacetime. In wartime, it can prevent air raids, nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons attacks. The top of the basement is usually equipped with a bulletproof layer.

Because many places in China experienced war before 1949, many cities still have old air-raid shelters. These air-raid shelters may not meet today's civil air defense standards, so they are mostly used for education, tourism, or for commercial purposes after being renovated.

Air-raid shelters that are close to the city are often opened in the summer as a place to cool off. If the air-raid shelter is spacious enough, sports and entertainment facilities will be set up for people to relax and exercise, and they can also be used as venues for public activities when necessary. Therefore, even early air-raid shelters do not only exist in the memories of the older generation, they are still a part of many people's lives.

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Specially designed to protect against various types of damage

As a special underground building with protection requirements, civil air defense projects mainly play a concealing and protective role, providing safety protection for the lives and property of the people.

Civil defense projects have a good protective effect against various killing factors of nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons and attacks from conventional weapons, because they can to a certain extent resist the hazards of various killing factors such as shock waves, light and heat radiation, nuclear radiation, toxic agents, radioactive and biological warfare agent-contaminated air and conventional explosion fragments.

Civil air defense projects generally have a thick coating layer, which can resist various damages such as shock waves, light radiation, nuclear radiation and conventional explosion fragments to varying degrees. Some civil air defense facilities can also prevent the harm to personnel caused by poisonous agents, radioactive substances and biological warfare agents polluting the air. Civil air defense projects are equipped with explosion-proof valves, protective doors, dust filters, gas filters and other equipment and facilities.

▲Protection measures for civil air defense projects (Photo source: Civil Air Defense Window WeChat)

Generally speaking, there are several types of designs for underground buildings used as civil air defense projects:

First, the clean area and the contaminated area are divided. The clean area is the main area for personnel shelter and material storage, while the contaminated area is used to isolate, eliminate and filter external toxic agents.

Second, there are protective unit partition walls and closed partition walls to separate various areas of the space. These walls are stronger and thicker than ordinary partition walls and have specified thickness and structure.

Third, there are reasonable civil air defense openings and outdoor entrances and exits to ensure personnel access, ventilation, water and electricity pipelines, ventilation and lighting, etc. In addition, the easiest way to identify the design of civil air defense projects is to see if there are any extra-large steel gates. If there are, whether it is an underground passage, a shopping mall, or an ordinary parking lot in a community, it is usually a civil air defense project.

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Understand the "air raid alarm" and be prepared

Air defense sirens are an important part of urban civil air defense projects. They are used for disaster forecasting and emergency notifications in disaster relief and emergency situations in peacetime, and for civil air defense in wartime. They are the basic means for people's governments at all levels to implement civil air defense command and organize personnel evacuation. They are sirens that sound when a city is threatened by air raids to remind people to take air defense measures.

After hearing the air defense alarm, you must immediately enter the civil air defense project to take shelter. If you cannot enter the civil air defense project, you must use the terrain and objects to hide nearby.

According to the timing of alarm issuance, it can be divided into advance alarm, air raid alarm and all-clear alarm.

(Photo source: Voice of Civil Defense WeChat)

The purpose of the advance warning signal is to inform citizens to make preparations for air raids in advance when the city may be attacked by air raids. The sound signal is: beep for 36 seconds and stop for 24 seconds, repeat 3 times, and the duration is 3 minutes. It is mainly an early warning when the city has signs of air raids, prompting people to take protective measures or evacuate urgently.

(Photo source: Voice of Civil Defense WeChat)

The purpose of the air raid alarm signal is to inform citizens to quickly take protective measures such as evacuation and shelter when an air raid is approaching the city or is about to occur or has already begun. The sound signal is: beep for 6 seconds, stop for 6 seconds, repeat 15 times for a cycle, and the time is 3 minutes.

(Photo source: Voice of Civil Defense WeChat)

The purpose of the all-clear signal is to inform citizens that they can carry out work to eliminate the consequences of the air raid and resume normal production and life order when the air raid danger has been lifted. The sound signal is: one long sound continuously for 3 minutes.

In order to make everyone understand and be familiar with the regulations on air defense alarm signals in our country, enhance the national defense concept and emergency prevention awareness of the whole people, and in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "People's Air Defense Law of the People's Republic of China" on air defense alarm tests, various parts of our country will organize air defense alarm tests at certain times.

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Civil air defense projects have saved the lives of millions of people

There is no doubt that civil air defense projects are life-saving projects. During the Second World War, Britain had relatively complete civil air defense equipment, and its territory was bombed by the German army for five years. The bombs dropped on the mainland weighed more than 70,000 tons, and the casualties reached 140,000. In contrast, Poland did not take appropriate civil air defense measures. More than 30 cities were destroyed in the first three days of the war. More than 500,000 residents of Warsaw alone were killed or injured in the crazy bombing of the German army. In the Kosovo War, NATO, led by the United States, carried out unprecedentedly barbaric and cruel bombing on hundreds of political, economic and military targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but the military and civilians of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia relied on protective projects to preserve their vitality and war potential.

Historically, civil air defense has also played a role in nuclear attacks. On August 6 and 9, 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, were suddenly attacked by American atomic bombs, causing more than 230,000 casualties and heavy losses. However, while all the buildings on the ground collapsed and rubble was everywhere, the air-raid shelters remained intact. In Nagasaki, some ordinary tunnel-type air-raid shelters were located in an area where all the buildings on the ground were destroyed, only 0.3 miles away from the projection point of the explosion center, and there was no protective door at the entrance of the cave, but the people hiding deep in the cave survived without any injuries. In areas where shock waves and fires destroyed all buildings, many family shelters covered with mud were basically not damaged.

As modern warfare continues to evolve, air strikes have become one of the main combat styles, with unprecedentedly greater destructive power, unprecedented difficulty in air defense, and more diverse targets for air strikes. It is conceivable that if the power supply is cut off, the network is paralyzed, and the traffic is destroyed, it will cause panic among the masses, affect social stability, and directly affect the course and outcome of the war. Without the solid shield of civil air defense that protects the country and the people, it is impossible to be prepared, deter the enemy, protect the masses, and ensure victory.

We have learned from historical experience and must attach more importance to civil defense work, make full use of the current favorable opportunity of relative peace, and strengthen civil defense construction while vigorously developing the economy. Even in modern wars, civil defense projects still play an important role in reducing civilian lives and property losses and enhancing the country's ability to resist damage. The construction of civil defense projects in peacetime is by no means dispensable.

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(Sources: China National Geographic, Chongqing Civil Air Defense, Voice of Civil Air Defense, China Military Bugle, Beijing Civil Air Defense, Beijing Science and Technology News, etc.)

Produced by: Science Central Kitchen

Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Beijing Science and Technology Media

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