How does the Secure Space keep you safe

We all know that our Secure Space is the safest place to be when rockets and missiles are being fired. In this guide, you can learn how the Secure Space keeps us safe when rockets and missiles are being fired, and what the emphases are to put on proper conduct in it.

Choosing the Secure Space
When an alert is received, we must enter the Secure Space during the time at our disposal, and wait 10 minutes. This action can prevent serious injuries which result from a falling rocket or missile, and can even save our lives.
  For this purpose, it is very important to choose a Secure Space according to the guidelines, and to get it ready in advance. 
Many past events have proven that people who entered Secure Spaces according to the guidelines of the Home Front Command, succeeded in saving their lives. However, those few who didn’t have time or weren’t able to do so, were injured, to our regret.

The guidelines of the Home Front Command allow everyone to choose the Secure Space according to the “most secure available” principle. So even if you don’t have a residential secure space (Mamad), a building floor secure space (Mamak), or a bomb shelter that you can get to on time, you can choose a stairwell or an inner room of the house as a Secure Space.

This is how the Secure Space keeps us safe
A missile or rocket has several parts, among them a warhead. When the warhead hits the ground, the wall of a building, or any other object, it explodes. As a result of the explosion, thousands of pieces of burning shrapnel, and a strong shock wave, are created. These pieces of shrapnel are liable to hit us, depending on the strength of the explosion and ones proximity to it. When we stand exposed in the vicinity of the focus of the explosion, for example outside, on the porch, or by the window, we are liable to be struck by a direct hit of shrapnel, which fly around at great speed. In addition, the shock wave at the time of the explosion is liable to send us flying and fling us about forcefully, and may even may cause serious injuries to the internal organs in our bodies.

When our Most Secure Space is the stairwell - we must make sure that the stairwell is an interior one, and that there is at least one floor (preferably two) above us, and one floor below us. You must not stand on the ground floor or the top floors, so that the cement floor below you and the roof above you will provide you with protection, prevent injury by shrapnel, and slow down the shock wave.

When our Most Secure Space is an internal room - we have to make sure that interior room we chose has the fewest external walls and doors as possible, and that it doesn’t have any ceramic tiles in it. We must keep close to an internal wall, and sit below the lower line of the windows. Standing next to a closed window exposes us to being struck by shrapnel, and to a shock wave. The glass of the window is liable to shatter and injure us, even if we are a far distance away from the center of the explosion, even dozens of meters away.

In addition, standing right next to an external wall may slightly slow up the piece of shrapnel, but it still may penetrate it. Similarly, the shock wave may collapse or shatter the wall, and as a result, pieces of cement from the wall that collapsed are liable to injure us. The more interior the wall we stand next to is, with as many walls which separate us from the location of the explosion as possible, the less chance there is that the shrapnel and the shock wave will go through it, and so we will be more protected.

In any event - even staying in a regular room, which isn’t an internal one, is better than staying outside, since the speed and force of the shrapnel and the shock wave will not be as powerful. Nevertheless, we must act to limit the danger - to stand near an inner wall and to crouch down below the window line. When we reach an unfamiliar place, we must locate and choose the “most secure” place in our vicinity, and its worthwhile to consult and ask where such a place is.

When we are outside in an open area - and there is no possibility of entering a building, - lie down on the ground and protect your head with your hands. Here you can read why it’s important to lie down on the ground
Remember that these guidelines are always correct, whether the explosion takes place in the street, on the wall of the building we are staying in, or even on the wall of a nearby building.