A group of young engineers launch an initiative to assess the buildings damaged by the earthquake

Homs, (ST) – A number of Syrian young engineers launched an initiative titled “Evaluating the safety of buildings and assessing the damage caused to them as a result of the earthquake”.

This initiative came within the framework of believing in the importance of voluntary work, and with the aim of supporting the people in the governorates affected by the earthquake and extending a helping hand to them with everything necessary to overcome the effects of this ordeal,

In a statement to SANA reporter Eng. Ali Al-Hassan, BA in Civil Engineering from Al-Baath University, and the owner of the initiative, indicated that in the light of the recent frequent earthquakes, and out of social responsibility with regard to transferring experiences, educating citizens, and calming people in post-traumatic phase, this initiative was launched with the aim of assessing the safety of residential buildings and the damages caused to them by the earthquake.

Al-Hassan indicated that the purpose of the initiative is to conduct an immediate initial assessment of residential buildings and calm and educate residents and fearful people. He added that increasing community awareness about the dangers and ensuring cooperation among residents to disseminate information that would help reduce the state of terror and panic are also among the purpose of the initiative.

Al-Hassan stressed that the field of application of the initiative is all areas affected by the earthquake, aftershocks as well as the inhabited residential buildings in which cracks occurred.

He indicated that the initiative’s work team is the (ISO) engineering group with its construction team consisting of 6 civil engineers, and 15 volunteer engineers from all over the governorates, as well as 12 students from the College of Civil Engineering in their final year. Work is to be done under the supervision of engineers specialize in technical evaluation work for existing and damaged buildings and in various support techniques.

He also explained that the work mechanism includes creating quick assessment forms with clarification of some points in them, so that engineers know the direction and make the most appropriate decision, while explaining a set of basic information related to the building’s supporting structure.

Raghda Sawas