Citation

Aguirre BE, Wenger DE, Glass TA, Diaz-Murillo M, Vigo G. Int. J. Mass Emerg. Disasters 1995; 13(1): 67-92.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, International Sociological Association, International Research Committee on Disasters)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Guadalajara gasoline explosion of 22 April 1992 is examined to show the importance of social organization in search and rescue activities. Interviews were conducted with forty-three victims that had been buried alive by the explosion and twenty-two volunteers who had participated in the direct rescue phase. They reported on their experiences during SAR and those victims and rescuers near them. Most of the people that were rescued alive were rescued by these volunteers. Volunteers' social identities in peer groups, extended families, the neighborhood, and the Catholic Church structured their search and rescue activities. Chances of people surviving the blast were directly proportional to the presence among searchers of a person or persons who cared for the victim and who knew the victim's likely location. The behavior of the victims was marked by the continuation of pre-existing motivational, normative, and value orientations. Victims acted co-operatively during entrapment. Most of the living victims were rescued during the first two hours after the explosion.