Earthquakes don’t kill people – buildings do. And those beautiful decorative pieces are the first to fall

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News of the Melbourne earthquake on Wednesday hurt my left leg. This is my leg that I almost lost.

On February 22, 2011, the nine of us were on a red bus from Sumner to the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. At 12.51, the unreinforced brick facade of 605 Colombo Street wrecked our bus and four pedestrians. I felt one brick after another on my left hip, and I wondered how long I would last.

I’m the only one left – the lucky thirteenth.

I was taken to the hospital in the back of a stranger’s truck. I broke more bones than surgeons were willing to count, spent two months in the hospital, and six months off work. After more than a decade, I feel the earthquake at every step.

During that earthquake, 16 people were killed on that block of Christchurch’s main street. Melbourne and Country Victoria are filled with places just like her, with brick facades, parapets and gables.

It wasn’t the earthquake that killed everyone but me on that bus. It was the building, its lack of organization, lack of structural support, and lack of a railing. It wasn’t just bad luck.

The deadly earthquake helped turn Christchurch into a disaster-resistant city. (

Reuters: Simon Baker

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Changing the New Zealand Building Code to prioritize ‘tricky bits’ of buildings was not in my life plan. But extraordinary events can change ordinary life plans. So when I got out of the hospital, I put my normal environmental work aside, and it took me a few years to keep up with the seismology, earthquake engineering, and seismic safety of buildings.

Five years later, the New Zealand Parliament ratified the “Brower Amendment” to the Building Act to prioritize the repair of decorative pieces of unreinforced brick. And now I ask Victoria to learn from your kiwi cousins.

Earthquakes don’t kill people. do buildings. And those beautiful decorative parts of buildings are the first to fall, even in relatively light earthquakes such as the ones Victoria experiences from time to time.

Rebuild better

After Christchurch, New Zealand learned its lesson and reformed our building legislation. Victoria could skip the really painful part of the lesson – street deaths and injuries – and move straight to legislative reform.

The smart thing to do is to create a separate category for unsupported non-structural masonry: parapets (the small decorative extension at the top of the wall), gables and chimneys. This is a good idea because:

They are the cheapest to repair, they are the first to fall, they are the deadliest when they do.

It makes sense to choose the low fruits first. This will dramatically improve safety on Victoria’s streets without costing an arm and a leg – literally or figuratively.

Here, it was recommended by the Royal Commission on Earthquakes in Canterbury. GNS Science calls railings, gables and chimneys “hazardous,” even in cities with low seismic risk, such as Auckland, Dunedin and Melbourne.

Part of a building on Chapel Street collapsed during the earthquake.

supplied

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The collapse of the building on our bus was expected. Everyone knows that unsupported bricks fall. For me, the more predictable losses are the least acceptable. This is especially true when prevention methods are known and straightforward such as securing a barrier to the structural core of the building.

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Installing baffles first has the highest safety-to-cost ratio. No complicated examination required. Barriers do not stabilize the building.

Attaching them securely is less disruptive to in-building activity than replacing them entirely. However, they can also be easily replaced by lighter, less lethal materials, as is often the case in California.

Most dangerous pieces

The building that collapsed on us was valued at $29,000, according to a 2007 government estimate. The Royal Commission has learned that attaching the front facade to the building would cost $194,000.

By my calculations, saving my left leg cost taxpayers about half a million dollars.

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Installing parapets, gables and chimneys first is also fair. Unsupported buildings pose a greater public danger to pedestrians than other types of earthquake-prone buildings, which may collapse from the inside. Placing buildings in nothing will do nothing for those on the street and on the footpath.

Allowing barriers to continue without attachment only benefits the owner. In the meantime, the risks are passed on to the public and to the public health system in the event of an accident.

Repairing the most dangerous and least expensive bits first is a cost effective way to preserve heritage buildings. Fixing trick bits may make whole building reinforcement unnecessary, and may prompt owners to spend money now rather than several decades when the entire building needs repairs.

I’m not saying that all buildings in Victoria or Melbourne have to be “earthquake resistant” like those in Tokyo or San Francisco. I recommend cheap and effective repairs to the parts of buildings that are easiest to fix and deadliest if you don’t.

I appreciate my left leg and the scars and everything. But please, Australia, learn from your Kiwi cousins.

Anne L. Brewer is Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Canterbury. This piece first appeared in The Conversation and has been modified, with permission, from a 2017 article that originally appeared in Earthquake Spectra magazine.

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