A safe room (Merkhav Mugan Dirti) is a room in an apartment that serves as a shelter, made of rigid shielding that protects it from lethal mechanical impacts such as explosives and provides sealing against unconventional materials.
Israel’s security sensitivity makes the safe room a particularly important measure, as it provides proper protection and shortens arrival times.
Thus, since the Gulf War, the safe room has become a space required in every apartment, and today it is impossible to receive Form 4, which certifies that the apartment is suitable for occupancy, without a safe room.
What is Form 4
Form 4 is a form issued by the local authority that certifies that a particular space—an apartment or house—is suitable for occupancy.
Thus, the form is part of a bureaucratic process designed to ensure that the apartment and house meet all safety standards required for proper and safe occupancy.
Several criteria must be met to receive Form 4, and these are the main ones:
- Construction according to permit: Compliance between the building permit issued and the actual construction.
- Fire safety approval: Confirmation that the systems installed in the building meet safety standards regarding fires, including prevention and extinguishing.
- Infrastructure compliance approval: Individual approvals for the infrastructure installed in the building, including water, gas, electricity infrastructure, and more.
- Structural approval by engineer: Confirmation that the building’s structure meets the necessary safety standards, including the integration of protected spaces in the building.
Thus, it can be seen that the requirement for a safe room is an integral part of the criteria that must be met for Form 4.
As part of the engineer’s role in inspecting the building’s structure, they must verify that the safe room integrated into it meets all Home Front Command standards and can thus serve as a protected space.
Criteria for Safe Room Approval
The detailed criteria required to receive Form 4 presented above is quite concise, and each of the four points presented can be expanded into a long and detailed list of requirements.
Thus, regarding the safe room, there are quite specific criteria that must be met, which are based on the standards set by the Home Front Command.
Below are the main standards that must be met to ensure that the safe room is proper and usable, and which constitute criteria for receiving Form 4:
Engineering Standard:
The most basic requirements of the safe room from the Home Front Command’s perspective are engineering requirements, which ensure that it will be possible to stay properly in the safe room and that it will be sufficiently protected.
Thus, the Home Front Command requires that the safe room be at least 9 m² in size, and that it allocate at least 1.25 m² for each person intended to stay in it.
In addition, the safe room must be at least 2.5 meters high, and its walls must be at least 20 cm thick.
The safe room can have no more than two exterior walls, and each exterior wall requires greater thickness, of at least 25 cm.
Concrete and Plaster:
Among the two main protection purposes of the safe room, the first is protection against mechanical pressure such as impact or explosion.
To this end, it must be verified that the safe room’s structure is indeed strong and sufficiently protected, and this is done through plaster and concrete tests—regarding concrete, it must be verified that it is thick enough and has hardened well, so that it provides proper protection, and regarding plaster, it must be verified that it covers the structure uniformly and without defects.
These tests are performed by professional companies capable of conducting proper analysis of the materials in the laboratory and issuing an approval accepted by the Home Front Command.
Safe Room Window and Door:
The two sensitive points in the safe room are the door and the window—on one hand, they must provide proper protection, and on the other hand, they are supposed to allow efficient entry and exit from the safe room.
Therefore, the Home Front Command has defined clear guidelines regarding the materials from which the window and door should be manufactured and regarding their sizes.
As part of the tests conducted to approve the safe room for receiving Form 4, these standards are also checked.
The safe room window must be 1.2 m² or less in area, with each side measuring between 80 cm and 110 cm in length.
In addition, it consists of two layers of glass—the outer one is a blast/shatter-resistant window, and the inner one is a gas-sealed protective window.
The safe room door must open only outward and be completely sealed—it must be covered with intact rubber that does not crumble and metal frames that are not rusted.
Ventilation Pipes:
An important requirement for the safe room is special ventilation pipes, which on one hand will ensure that no one suffocates inside the sealed safe room and on the other hand will ensure not to serve as defects that could harm those staying in the safe room.
Currently, the Home Front Command requires one 8-inch diameter ventilation pipe and two additional 4-inch diameter pipes, all equipped with shrapnel guards.
As part of the safe room inspection, these ventilation pipes will be checked to ensure they meet their engineering requirements.
Safe Room Filtration System:
To the regular safe room standards has been added the requirement for an air filtration system, which allows prolonged stay in the safe room if necessary.
Filtration systems of this type are systems manufactured specifically by various companies and are required to meet internal standards.
As part of their operation, they filter dust and NBC materials from the air to provide those staying inside the sealed safe room with clean, fresh air, and they are equipped with manual electrical backup and battery preparation.
As part of the inspection for receiving Form 4, the system will be checked to ensure that it itself meets all required standards and that it is connected as required to a standard 4-inch air intake pipe.
Sealing Test:
All the safe room requirements are ultimately summarized through a general sealing test, which examines all parts of the safe room and especially its sensitive parts to ensure they are indeed sealed.
Thus, while the walls themselves, the floor, and the ceiling are checked, greater emphasis is placed on the ventilation pipes, the door, and the window in searching for defects.
In addition, an inspection is performed on the safe room’s infrastructure piping, including electrical piping, but also water piping if it is integrated into the safe room, to ensure they are sufficiently sealed and do not include dangerous defects.
Receiving Form 4
There may be many tests required to receive Form 4, some performed during construction and some at its completion.
Regarding the safe room, it is possible to compile the exact list of requirements that will lead to receiving the desired form, and thus guide each resident and contractor on how to ensure they submit all required forms.
Thus, the following tests must be performed, the approvals received must be collected, and the forms submitted:
- Safe room window and door standard labels and certificates: The labels and standard certificates must be obtained from the contractor or the installer of the window and door.
- Sealing and plaster test: Performed by Isotope, which issues an approval at the end of the process.
- Concrete tests: Laboratory tests by an approved company that issues an approval at the end of the process.
- Engineer’s declaration: Receiving a declaration from an engineer that they have inspected and approved the integrity of the building’s structure in general and the safe room’s structure in particular.
- Installation of air and NBC filtration system: Including receiving approval for the system’s installation and compilation of standards that the system meets.
- Affixing standard certificate labels: Affixing the standard certificate labels on the safe room door and window.
- Submitting documents to Civil Defense: All the aforementioned documents are submitted to Civil Defense, which issues an approval for the safe room’s compliance.
With the approval received from Civil Defense, the safe room is considered compliant and the approval can be submitted along with parallel approvals to the occupancy committee to receive Form 4.