Ismira Lutfia

Sniffer dogs were used to locate survivors in the aftermath of the Padang earthquake. A handheld device that detected breathing was also successfully used to find survivors. (AP Photo)

$250 ‘Life Locator’ Saves Three Indonesian Quake Victims

A relatively inexpensive, hand-held device lent to the National Search and Rescue Agency prior to last week’s devastating earthquake has been credited with helping save three people trapped in a collapsed school.

Emi Frizer, a senior instructor from the agency, also known as Basarnas, said on Friday that they had been lent the $250 life locator three months ago and were able to use the device in the desperate search for survivors trapped beneath collapsed structures.

Frizer said the device was able to detect three female survivors beneath the ruins of STIBA Prayoga foreign language institute, leading to their eventual rescue.

“We found three survivors who had been trapped up to two days under the remains of a mostly concrete building,” Frizer said.

He said the device — which combines ultra wide band wave radar technology and biomedicine technology — could accurately locate survivors by detecting breathing within five meters and the slightest body movement within seven meters, even if the victims were buried beneath layers of collapsed wooden or concrete structures.

The device was fully put to the test during the West Sumatra earthquake, with the single device used by the 150-strong Basarnas team at 13 of the 40 sites where it was believed that trapped victims could still be alive.

However, he said the team had yet to make a decision on whether to purchase more life locators because the full effectiveness of the tool had yet to be determined.

Frizer said the effectiveness of the life locator depended on how the wreckage formed following a collapse and if there was enough space for rescue teams to move in to detect and evacuate the survivors.

He referred to the wreckage model of the Ambacang Hotel, in which more than 200 people were believed to have perished.

“It formed a V-like wreckage model with 70 percent of the worst damage taking place in the middle structure of the collapsed building,” Frizer said, adding that the such a wreckage model posed a greater risk for survivors trapped under it as any movement caused by searchers or the excavation process could collapse the building further and lead to the survivor’s death.

“That was why at the Ambacang site, we could only use the life locator device on the area encircling the hotel’s ruins as it was too dangerous to get to the middle area,” he said.

Frizer said that he and his team had used the device to locate one person who had survived the initial collapse.

The problem was, he said, that the ruins on top of the survivor were too heavy to be removed by hand and required the use of heavy excavating machinery.

“However, the excavating process caused the wreckage structure to move and collapse again,” he said.

“When we finally managed to peel off the ruins, we found the survivor had died.”

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