Diefenbunker Cold War Museum - Emergency Escape Hatch
Bill Maloney
10/27/2010

01EscapeHatchRoom 02EscapeHatchDoor 03EscapeHatchDoor 04SurfaceExit
01 Escape Hatch Room 02 Escape Hatch Door 03 Escape Hatch Door 04 Surface Exit
05SecondaryEscapeHatch      
05 Secondary Escape Hatch

The escape hatch provides an emergency exit for Diefenbunker personnel should the main entrance tunnel be blocked by blast debris or cave in. The lower escape hatch door leads to a vertical shaft. The shaft is filled top to just above the hatch with pea sized gravel designed to absorb radiation. Below the lower escape hatch door is a grate above a much larger chamber. If the main entrance shaft was blocked by a nuclear blast, this was the only way out. The occupants would pull a lever that would open a trap door in the shaft at the bottom of the column of gravel. The gravel would fall down through the grate into the larger chamber beneath. The suction of the gravel would break the plexiglas dome capping the escape shaft (assuming it survived the nuclear blast). When the dust settled, there would be a clear shaft to climb out of the Diefenbunker to reach the surface.

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