Ventilation of Air Raid Shelters

Abstract

THE occupancy of air raid shelters presents, actually or potentially, many of the whole range of problems with which the practice of ventilation is concerned. The term ‘ventilation’ is here used to include heating and other air-treatment; it may be defined as ‘the provision of air hygienically and physiologically adequate in quantity and quality’. In air raid shelters conditions arise which tend to reduce the efficiency of ventilation very considerably. While on one hand, the supply of air is hampered in a number of ways by safety requirements, the demand tends at the same time to be greatly increased. Structural alterations to places used as air raid shelters usually require the blocking or baffling of the natural airways; lighting restrictions interfere further with ventilating arrangements; the danger of gas attack may reduce the available air supply merely to the air capacity of the shelter. The fitting of ventilating appliances may entail some structural weakening of a refuge; and the dependence of most large plants on outside power is also a potential source of weakness. Furthermore, since in shelters the ordinary density of living-room occupancy is much exceeded, satisfactory standards of ventilation are distinctly more difficult of attainment.