The Importance of Deployable Morgues for Disaster Sites

Natural disasters of all types and intensity carry risk of fatalities. Even minor inclement weather scenarios can have tragic effects and loss of life.

Deployable morgues fill a critical need within effective medical care operations at disaster sites.

Disaster response planning should always include these systems in order to manage deceased victims respectfully, efficiently, and without putting the health of sick or wounded victims at further risk. Deployable morgues are important at disaster sites to provide these critical functions.

Efficient & Portable Morgue Systems

During the mass fatality incidents that sometimes follow natural disasters, deceased, wounded, and sick victims may overwhelm hospitals. Tensioned fabric structures offer the versatility and portability necessary in the event of a disaster with many casualties. BLU-MED’s deployable morgue system provides standalone facilities for victim processing and post-mortem investigations in incidents with numerous deceased disaster victims.

Since they are also portable, these systems provide the rapid deployment, standalone support and hospital expansion capabilities required for efficient and effective disaster response. 

Optimizing Disaster Response Operations

Proper processing of deceased disaster victims requires refrigeration in order to slow decomposition with cooling until the bodies can be sent to their loved ones, buried, or cremated.

After disaster strikes, bringing in appropriate refrigeration to accommodate victims can be a significant challenge. And without these facilities, the consequences are nearly immediate and catastrophic.

BLU-MED’s standalone facilities optimize disaster response efforts with the deceased because they enable rapid deployment, setup, and relocation.

Furthermore, they come with energy-efficient systems for HVAC, cooling, and additional system options. For example, our HEPA-certified filtration units can attach to our portable environmental control units (ECUs) to meet your cooling and ventilation needs while processing the bodies of deceased. Once bodies are placed in our carry bags, our EXT Medical Trailer System, which can feature HVAC unit add-ons, will allow for safe, temperature-regulated transport.

Some additional features of our deployable morgues include:

• Capacity of up to 24 victims 
• 650 square feet for holding and workspace
• Self-managed electrical power and HVAC
• Modular design for easy assembly, expansion, and take-down
• “Shirt-sleeve” work environment for ante-mortem data collection
• Ground-level entrance for easy access

Reducing Disease Contamination

The lack of hygiene that often follows a major disaster, particularly in developing countries, can lead to outbreak of serious diseases.

Deployable morgues significantly reduce the risk of contamination by isolating the deceased victims from the sick or injured. The sterile environments and morgue-specific systems in BLU-MED facilities also reduce the risk to disaster response personnel. This is key, since a PubMed.gov study shows that “persons who are involved in close contact with the dead-such as military personnel, rescue workers, volunteers, and others-may be exposed to chronic infectious hazards, including hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, HIV, enteric pathogens, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.” 

Minimizing Additional Death

Effective morgues completely separate the holding and processing of deceased disaster victims from the living.

On one hand, this isolation reduces the risk for response personnel. However, it also prevents the spread of fatal diseases that originate from a lack of hygiene or contamination. Although epidemic disease outbreak from corpse contamination is rare, human remains do “pose a substantial risk to health in a few special cases, such as deaths from cholera or haemorrhagic fevers,” according to the World Health Organization.

This is a current issue, as seen in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. At the height of the pandemic, staff in some hospitals had to store bodies in vacant rooms or even hallways because morgues were at capacity. This isn’t an issue when deployable morgue facilities are readily available.

BLU-MED can also help reduce risk by providing shower, latrine, and hygiene units to add to your morgue or other medical facilities. Providing these facilities for response personnel can help them maintain proper hygiene while carrying out their work.

Respectful Care for the Deceased

Sustaining human life is of top importance with medical practitioners and the systems they use. The respect we show to the deceased is also very important.

A tragic consequence of some natural disasters is a lapse in respectful care for the deceased. This is partially due to insufficient resources, because disasters are often impossible to plan for sufficiently (or at all!).

The more severe disasters can also produce an overwhelming amount of deceased victims, which hospitals and disaster response personnel may be under-equipped to handle. This has been the case for many hospitals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which have had to use whatever space is available to them.

Rapidly deployable, standalone morgue systems such as the ones we manufacture provide the ideal solution to this problem. They come fully equipped with capacity for up to 24 victims and are designed for quick, easy deployment to the disaster site. Their modular design also makes it simple to add more morgue space, as needed.

BLU-MED deployable morgue systems are mobile, versatile, and highly effective facilities for managing deceased disaster victims. These facilities are standalone and isolate contaminated victims with patented cooling technology. The design makes expansion easy and fast, with self-contained systems for electricity, HVAC, and cooling. At 650 square feet, each structure has capacity for up to 24 victims.

BLU-MED Response Systems^® (BLU-MED) was formed in 2004 as a division of Alaska Defense™ – the military division of AKS Industries, Inc.

Our structures are used for nearly every building application in every part of the world. That includes UN disaster relief facilities, military shelters, aviation hangars, convention centers, medical complexes, warehouses, mining and manufacturing facilities, film locations, theaters, incarceration complexes, housing, retail outlets, hotels, as well as many other applications large or small, remote or otherwise.

To learn more about us please contact us online or call +1-888-680-7181.