Approximately what percent of victims are surface victims?

• A. 30
• B. 70
• C. 5
• D. 50

Answer: (D)

In a building collapse, victims fall into two broad categories: those on the surface and those buried beneath debris. About half of the people affected are surface victims, meaning they’re visible, accessible, or only lightly covered by debris. The other half are buried or entrapped under rubble and require penetrating searches, voids, or excavation to reach. This roughly even split guides responders to begin with surface searches to quickly locate and assist those immediately accessible, then shift to subsurface operations for buried victims. While exact numbers vary by incident, the common training reference uses roughly 50 percent as the typical distribution.