Ontario survivalist builds underground shelter from 42 school busses

[mandrill]

http://globalnews.ca/news/2104429/ontario-man-fighting-to-protect-his-bunker-from-being-shut-down/

An Ontario man is fighting to protect his survival shelter from being shut down.

It’s called “Ark Two.” Bruce Beach had it built 35 years ago from 42 school buses that now lay buried under two feet of concrete and 14 feet of earth on his property in Dufferin County, about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto.

Fire officials in the area think the bunker is a hazard. They want it permanently welded shut ahead of a survivalists’ summit on the grounds this weekend which is expected to attract hundreds of people from across North America. Part of the draw was going to be tours of the dark and dingy shelter. It contains a labyrinth of tunnels that house everything Beach figures you’d need to survive a nuclear disaster: pumps for fresh well water, generators for power, canned food, even a giant soup pot to feed survivors. The whole structure could accommodate 500 people by U.S. standards.

“When you go inside the bunker for the first time, it is a different planet, it’s like you’re on Mars,” said event organizer Che Bodhi.

“When you hear about this concept of 42 school buses underground, to fathom it is nothing compared to going in and actually seeing it…It’s crazy in there. Unfortunately, we can’t do that.”

While Bodhi is willing to comply with authorities’ wishes, Beach refuses to give in.

“I’ll take whatever it takes to knock the weld back off.”

And he says he’ll do it right in front of them, even if it gets him arrested. The dispute, which Beach believes is personal, dates back to 2000. Citing public safety concerns, the Shelburne Fire Board ordered the shelter fixed up and closed.

Beach claims he made the recommended changes and is adamant that the bunker is structurally sound. He adds that it was designed “under the direction of a licensed structural engineer: The individual who happened to build the subway tunnels in Toronto.”

The OPP, which has been asked by the fire department to seal the door on the bunker, says it doesn’t have the authority to do that. That’s up to the fire department. Fire officials didn’t respond to multiple requests from Global News for comment.

 

[Keebler Elf]

The guy who wants to live "off the grid" is being shut down by the fire authorities. Too funny.

 

[basketcase]

Interesting way to spend his money.

The real question is how prepared he is for the zombie apocalypse? Bio-filters? Secure isolation facilities?
On a more practical side, he's need a pretty damn complete septic system to handle that many people for any length of time. Probably would smell pretty funky after a couple days too.

As I said, cool thing to build but not exactly useful as more than a tourist attraction (and Mr. President, we must not allow a school bus bunker gap!)

 

[red]

Does the fire dept have nothing else to do?





Oh that's right - they don't

 

[radagast]

Interesting way to spend his money.

The real question is how prepared he is for the zombie apocalypse? Bio-filters? Secure isolation facilities?
On a more practical side, he's need a pretty damn complete septic system to handle that many people for any length of time. Probably would smell pretty funky after a couple days too.

As I said, cool thing to build but not exactly useful as more than a tourist attraction (and Mr. President, we must not allow a school bus bunker gap!)

Here's his floorplan: http://webpal.org/SAFE/aaaarktwo/shel04.gif

Just spent a few minutes reading about him. Sounds like he's been at this since the 1980s, and fighting with the township about it just as long.

 

[IM469]

Here's his floorplan: http://webpal.org/SAFE/aaaarktwo/shel04.gif

Just spent a few minutes reading about him. Sounds like he's been at this since the 1980s, and fighting with the township about it just as long.

Amazing layout but if it's underground - wouldn't have been cheaper and more flexible to just use construction materials instead of school buses ?

Also how much time do you have when the apocalypse arrives to stock the dentist and doctor facilities with restricted (non-expired) drugs ? Has he got the dentist lined up or is this kind of Disney like - future vision ?

 

[notthemama]

they showed this idiot before the 2000 scare.

 

[destillat]

they showed this idiot before the 2000 scare.

Wow... I never knew that preparing for a worst case scenario made you an 'idiot'.
Thanks for enlightening me...

 

[Cassini]

Amazing layout but if it's underground - wouldn't have been cheaper and more flexible to just use construction materials instead of school buses ?

He probably built a fairly good structure. The buses will act as forms for the reinforced concrete. Two feet of reinforced concrete under earth will survive a small artillery barrage.

The primary danger to the structure is water and earth movement. If he didn't build it too deep, the concrete is going nowhere. Water is a danger, but it sounds like he build it on high-ground.

The fire department will have a very hard time sitting solid evidence the structure is unstable, as the structure will be almost impossible to inspect. Likely, he pissed of the neighbours and the local city zoning officials, and is in trouble for building this structure without proper planning approvals.

The fire department may be able to get him on the idea that he can't display the structure to the public because of public safety concerns. However, that wouldn't necessarily prevent the owner from accessing the structure.

 

[destillat]

The fire department may be able to get him on the idea that he can't display the structure to the public because of public safety concerns. However, that wouldn't necessarily prevent the owner from accessing the structure.

Nor would it matter during the Zombie Apocalypse!!

 

[radagast]

Amazing layout but if it's underground - wouldn't have been cheaper and more flexible to just use construction materials instead of school buses ?

Also how much time do you have when the apocalypse arrives to stock the dentist and doctor facilities with restricted (non-expired) drugs ? Has he got the dentist lined up or is this kind of Disney like - future vision ?

Ya gotta respect somebody who's been doing/building what he believes in for 30+ years. However, looking a bit more at his floorplan I do wonder a bit about some of his design decisions. Thinking about the apocalypse in a horseman-like fashion...

WAR
- based on his website, security wasn't great in the beginning (lots of vandalism, etc). Sounds like he's got that sorted out and has it sealed off, but probably shouldn't have been an issue to start with.
- no obvious provision for weapons on the floorplan (armoury, ammunition storage etc). Don't know if he thinks that nobody in the shelter will be armed, or if he thinks *everybody* in the shelter will be armed 24/7. Either way it would be nice to have some sort of constabulary, even just three or four guys, to help keep order among the 500 as well as a place for a gunsmith to work, a magazine, etc.
- needs an enclosed area to confine/separate/secure anybody caught performing criminal acts or anybody who's just gone plain crazy with cabin fever

FAMINE
- thinking about how much food 500 people eat, I think he has too little space dedicated to storage
- where does his solid food waste (and any other solid waste) go? Into the septic?

PESTILENCE
- he has very little space to care for casualties...how many cots/beds could fit in the footprint of a schoolbus...10? Unless he builds bunks which wouldn't be great for that purpose.
- no ability to isolate contagious patients
- everybody who goes through the decontamination area has to go through the surgery/infirmary. That seems suboptimal
- why so much space for dentistry? Why a dental xray machine (I don't know, can you take regular xrays with that machine. Even then how useful would they be?)
- pharmacy is in a weird place. I assume his plan is "just-in-time" stocking of drugs, whether through a pre-arranged set-up with a local pharmacist or just smash-n-grab as the world is going to hell.

DEATH
- he needs a morgue.

MISC
- his website talks about how humid it is in the shelter (rust, mildew on the dental chair etc) when it's empty. I can't imagine how hot, humid and smelly it would get with 500 people inside. I hope his HVAC can handle it.
- speaking of which I hope he's been occasionally running/testing his generators, pumps etc and that they haven't just been sitting idle for 30 years. He might get some nasty surprises on doomsday otherwise. Also hope he has planned for spare parts/replacements and storage of same.
- I wouldn't put a cry room and nursery beside a silent library


There's a bunch more. It's easy to nit-pick things from my comfy chair, and again I respect the guy for his dedication to his vision and having actually built the thing. I just wonder how functional the place will be on doomsday.

 

[Promo]

Ark Two / SAFE Official website: http://webpal.org/SAFE/aaaarktwo/
Site includes a detailed description of the construction of the shelter, interior shots and a description of how the facility will be operated.

I've attended a few prepper meetings in Toronto including one with Bruce Beach presenting. He's bit of a character and a dynamic presenter - he's pretty careful to avoid the extreme side of the survivalist community and is by no-means a crazy doomsday type. He claims to have provided consulting services on over 50 commercial shelters (paid consulting) and 250+ private shelters (free). He'll respond to email questions and is often found on Ontario prepper chat groups.

Re Fire Department Problems:
He's been battling city planners and the fire department for years. The shelter was originally built following all the building requirements at the time (80s), had all the correct permits and was fully inspected. However the shelter was a continual work in progress and the local authorities used that loophole to try to force Beach to keep the shelter at current building standards. The main concern was fire: 1) the shelter as originally built did not have a sprinkler system (it had fire hoses and extinguishers) , 2) There were no fire doors to isolate a fire within the shelter, 3) the ventilation system did not include isolation valves so smoke would be spread and 4) the fuel system for the generators was not considered safe. The Fire departments latest concern is the safety of its firefighters. If there is a problem within the shelter (i.e fire, collapse), the FD does not want to send its staff into what it claims is an unsafe/dangerous structure.

IMHO Beach is a reasonable person (lol - I admit I only spoke to him personally for 15 minutes) and he acknowledges these issues and has been working to improve the fire-systems within shelter, but he's not a rich man and uses sweat-equity (volunteers) to help. He has the shelter regularly inspected by an independent professional engineer for structure issues and by an ARK community member who is an expert on indoor air quality (mold, spores, etc).

 

[IM469]

DEATH- he needs a morgue.

There is one indicated in his drawings on the top right corner although possibly meat will be in short supply - instead of the morgue - bodies are shipped straight to the kitchen.

 

[Promo]

National Geographic Doomsday Preppers special on Ark Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2L17BMJmo0&list=PL2BDA580861CDFDBE&index#t=01m30s

Input on some of the comments above:
- Beach is not a "live off the grid" kind-of person. The fire department has not shut him down, he won the recent court cases and has agreed to not provide tours during the Preparedness Ontario 2015 event. He still provides private tours on request for those he feels genuinely interested in the community.

- The shelter is equipped with a large septic system (two I believe). More info at the link I provided in the post above. There is also an underground overflow tank.

- The link above provides info on why school buses and he talked about that in the presentation. At the time the technique offered the best compromise between cost, strength, speed and simplicity of construction. Extensive preparation for water control was included and "it's built on the highest ground in Ontario". Beach claims it's a common build technique among preppers and I personally know two people who have buried a bus into the side of a hill on their farms (Beach consulted on one).

- "much time do you have when the apocalypse arrives to stock the dentist and doctor facilities with restricted (non-expired) drugs". Beach's approach to Ark Two is "a community of like-minded experts". Many people involved with Ark2 have the needed skills for it's operation: doctors, dentists, police officers, x-military, engineers, farmers, etc. There is a plan for stocking the shelter with drugs, perishable foods, equipment etc. It's not likely that armageddon will happen overnight. There will be a build-up and the Prepper community has the equivalent of a 5 stage count-down clock. Beach has organized Ark2 so that as each tick occurs more materials are moved into the shelter.

- He definitely built the shelter to building code at the time and it was inspected during construction. He has the shelter regularly inspected by an independent professional engineer for structure issues.

- He talked about the vandalism problem during the presentation and admitted that the physical security wasn't the best. First, he advertises the shelter's existence, the property only has a junky 4 foot fence and the main door to the shelter was only thin steel. Again, Beach isn't a rich man so construction price/performance was a compromise. It was his intention 10 years ago to put a 8' fence around the property, strengthen the outside doors, add jail-cell like doors inside the shelter in key junctions, etc.

- Ark2 indeed has weapons and many of the Ark2 community are police offers and x-military. He intentionally leaves this info off the diagram and will not talk about it in detail. The facility has a sensory deprivation tank that he claims has been to help people that have "bunker-fever". There is a room that can be used as a jail cell and can be locked from the outside.

- there are 24 bunks per bus x 7 bunk rooms x 3 sleeping shifts = 504 people.

- He described in the presentation that there was a provision for a morgue, enough storage space for food, clothing, books, games, water etc. for 500 people for 30-60 days. LOL, no-one brought up the topic of waste disposal! Good point.

- The reason the shelter is so humid now is that when it's sitting idle he runs the ventilation system at low capacity. Again, he's not a rich man and although he and his volunteers are constantly working on the shelter, most of the facility is mothballed.

Personally, I think I would go crazy in that place. It's tight, old, dark, no privacy, no large open spaces and likely humid and smelly. Can you imagine 500 people in it?

KEEP IN MIND MY INFO IS 12 -15 YEARS OLD.

 

[Promo]

Diefenbunker: If you are into Cold War history and would like a tour of Canada's most famous bunker: http://diefenbunker.ca/

Many people think of Preppers as crazy militia types who are awaiting nuclear attack or the zombie apocalypse. Fact is, most I've met are more interested in the basics:
- how to deal with a 10-14 day power outage
- what should a homeowner stock to deal with a ~30 day emergency
- what should a bug-out kit include
- reviews on emergency: lighting, heat sources, radios, cooking tools, water treatment products, foods, solar products, portable generators etc. <-- most of these products are junk and through the community we share info on the quality products
- alternative to gas cars - i.e. what cars to buy that will be compatible with home made biodiesel fuel
- other emergency preparation situations: tornado, sewer back-ups into house, tree falls on house, home security, etc.
- weapons and self-protection techniques. We even discuss door locks, window shutters etc.

I think most of us treat it more as an interesting topic and don't spend a lot of dollars on the actual preparations although I personally have 30 days of food/water/materials that I constantly rotate. My house is reasonably secure and I can hopefully defend it. I have a plan to leave the city if needed and a place to go.


Few Prepper links:
http://www.meetup.com/Ontario-Prepper-Survival-Network/
http://www.meetup.com/The-United-Survivalist-Network-Of-Ontario/
http://www.canadianpreppersnetwork.com/

 

[Terminator2000]

does he have to pay rent and utility bills for this thing?

sounds awesome if its all free lol

off the grid would be awesome.

 

[radagast]

Random thoughts:

- re: morgue. I didn't notice the morgue on the drawing, thx for pointing it out.

- re: stocking the shelter. Makes sense to have put a lot of effort into his local social network (in the non-facebook sense) and to ramp-up provisioning based on what's going on in the world. Glad he's done so.

- re: physical security. This is probably going to be my harshest critique of the project and might be a little bit unfair: If he had such (what the kids these days would call) an "epic fail" early on from what seems like (at least, in retrospect from my comfy chair in a tall tower in downtown Toronto) a pretty obvious and preventable problem during normal times I just wonder what else won't work right (or hasn't even been considered) when the shit is hitting the fan. Those Dick Cheney-esque "unknown unknowns" that bedevil every project.

- damn, I love parantheses.

- re: weapons. Like the dog that didn't bark in the night, this drew attention to itself by not being there at all. I kinda figured there is stuff that isn't on the diagram (especially given the sterotypical prepper attitude of "We need guns! And more guns! And even *bigger* guns to go with them!". Yes it's a sterotype, and I don't mean to say anything about Mr. Beach specifically. It would just be really hard to spend 30 years building a survival shelter and not have somebody in your community at least say in passing "Umm...do you think we need more guns?". I'm sure that angle is well taken care of, actually...

- re: provisions and storage. If he's done the math (actually, if a bunch of different people have independently done the math and done it correctly) and he thinks that he has enough resources for 30-60 days for 500 people then that's cool and I'll take him at his word. My gut sense, without doing even a back-of-the-envelope calculation, was that he would need several more school buses filled with supplies.

- re: 504 people. I think he's very wisely segregated quarters by age and gender. Here's something that just struck me, and has maybe been considered. It's one thing to have 504 people in your shelter and have to say to person number 505 "sorry, no room". I think it would be much more morally distressing for the leadership and general community to have say 487 people in the shelter but have capped out on certain demographics. Imagine being the front door guard who has to say "I'm sorry ma'am, you and your starving baby will have to stay outside but these three teenage boys can come in.". It's not a solvable problem, but I hope he has some shrinks on his list of skilled personnel, and lots of valium in the pharmacy.


Having said all of that, I will not and do not want to live in a post-apocalyptic world. If nothing else I would die of heartbreak for all of the wasted potential and resources that we as a society pissed away. I'll try and make my own death as painless and quick as I can under whatever circumstances have befallen humanity.

But it's a fun thought experiment on a Friday afternoon.

 

[Trailer Park Boy]

Bruce Beach is very charismatic man and by no means paid for this "facility" on his own. It was built from donations made by people with more money than brains including our own Federal Government! Yes. That's right. If you were paying taxes before 1985, you have invested in this scare monger's hell hole! Local fire officials ordered the door sealed after an inspection 10-15 years ago. Today, due to new legislation, it is deemed a confined space and fire officials will not enter this "facility" nor will they send in rescue crews. It was built to 1980's standards, using 1980's technology and maintained by a charismatic old man who has no qualifications, other than being able to convince people to part with their hard earned money for a pipe dream.

 

[jrobertson1]

Leave the poor guy alone

 

[Kilgore Trout]