Temperatures in the tunnel reached at least 1,832 degrees . A trial has opened in France to establish responsibility for a fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel which killed 39 people almost six years ago. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire. What Happened and What Has Been Learned Outside, in the tunnel, Tinazzis motorcycle melted into the roadbed. He had been devastated when his wife, who hated the alpine winters, left him and returned to her native Puglia in the far south. like barriers for tunnel closure), problems of communication between the different stakeholders involved, which may be caused by various reasons, are a key issue in incident management, the systematic evaluation of individual incidents often contributes to the optimisation of emergency response procedures and cooperation and training of all organisations involved in incident management. At each 300 m, there are rest areas for vehicles with 3.15m width by 30m long located on the alternative side of the roadways . They saved several people, ferrying them out to the Italian portal. Mont Blanc Tunnel re -opens 3 years after tragic fire in Chamonix, France on March 09, 2002. A control room on the French side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Shortly after, the driver realized something was wrong as cars coming in the opposite direction flashed their headlights at him; a glance in his mirrors showed white smoke coming out from under his cabin. In the United States, the National Fire Protection Association publishes a document with a dry title but life-or-death consequences: NFPA 502: Standard for Road Tunnels, Bridges and Other Limited Access Highways.. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. tunnelmb.net Wikipedia The Mont Blanc Tunnel Disaster: Lessons Learned | Harvard Business Melted wiring had eliminated any possible light sources in the tunnel; in the smoke and with abandoned and wrecked vehicles blocking their path, both fire engines were unable to proceed, and were blocked at garage 17, 1200 metres from the burning truck. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the Volvo truck without stopping. Pierlucio Tinazzi - Wikipedia Further, well-structured and reliable information on tunnel incidents is of great importance as input data for quantitative risk assessment as well as to motivate improvements in safety systems and procedures. On 3/24/1999 the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred when a truck carrying 12 tons of flour and 9 tons of margarine entered the French side of the 7.2-mile tunnel connecting France and Italy in the Alps. Five tunnel fires, all in Europe, resulted in 72 deaths. PDF Fire Safety in Tunnels - The Concrete Initiative Others blamed a mechanical or electrical fault, or poor maintenance of the truck's engine. . The initial journey through the tunnel was routine. Pierlucio Tinazzi (Italian pronunciation:[pjrluto tinattsi]; 27 December 1962 24 March 1999) was an Italian security guard who died while trying to rescue victims of the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire. I suppose I sympathize with any editor who chose to downplay a correction, after a devastated region had drawn inspiration from so unlikely a hero. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Smoke from the area around the truck's cab was detected by a tunnel smoke 35 die, 1 Briton missing in Mont Blanc tunnel fire 39 people were killed. Built in 1980, the Gotthard has had increased traffic since a 1999 fire forced the closure of the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy. . These topics are also addressed systematically in thetechnical report 2016 R35 Experience with Significant Incidents in Road Tunnels. 677 Mont Blanc Tunnel Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images Pierlucio Tinazzi, the biker nicknamed Spadino. I traveled to Val dAosta on my own dime to write a story that I eventually came to call Searching for Spadino.. Initially, there was a lot of conjecture, and uneasiness, about how a fire of that size could become so deadly and produce so much damage, Mr. Connell said. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. The central ventilation hangar on the Italian side helps control the air in the tunnel. The resulting fire and smoke generated from it led to the deaths of 39 people behind the lorry, including one firefighter, and is considered the worst road tunnel fire ever. So you can imagine why newspapers and magazines are not interested in revising [the] account.. Although hed lived in the close-knit Val dAosta region since birth, all most people knew about him was that he loved motorcycles, and rode at every opportunity. a more efficient organisation of operational and emergency services (harmonised, safer and more efficient emergency procedures, specifically for cross-border operation). "Inside the vehicles, you can see skeletons and human remains but it is impossible to say how many," an Italian official said. The police deposed hundreds of witnesses and experts, studied all the security logs and video, and analyzed thousands of photos and other pieces of forensic evidence. The safe havens were designed to protect motorists from a fire for only two hours. The fire burned for 50 hours. Their bodies were found several hundred metres from the site of the crash, just beyond the halfway point between the French and Italian tunnel mouths. The larger trucks were stranded, as they did not have the space to turn around, and reversing out was not an option. The magnitude of death and destruction reverberated widely. That tunnel blaze killed 39 people. Mont Blanc Tunnel Toll Prices - Get from France to Italy - Chamonix TV documentaries were also made concerning the disaster, all distributed worldwide and focusing on either safety aspects or the circumstances that turned what should have been a serious, but controllable incident into a disaster. Four years later, in 2003, I was living in France. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly. Earlier reports also present a statistical census of breakdowns, collisions and fires in selected tunnels, as well as the lessons to be drawn from such events for the geometric design of the tunnel, the design of the safety equipment and the operating guidelines: Send a review,a comment or a suggestionto the manual authors! The fire burned for 50 hours. I set out to write a biographical sketch of an unlikely hero. Other name(s): Tunnel du Mont-Blanc: Beginning of works: 1957: Completion: 19 July 1965: Status: in use Project Type. I got caught on the phrase entered the smoke-filled tunnel from the Italian side, because I knew Tinazzi wasnt on the Italian side. It held that title. The US magazine, ran an abridged version the next year. An Italian or French-language search for the heros name, yielded posts that were a lot more circumspect when it came to describing Tinazzis actions that day. The tunnel crossing is subject to a toll; the toll differs from Italy to France because of their different VAT rates. I was not alone in making Spadino a hero. In 1997, a fire detection system was installed along with centralized safety equipment management, and new variable message signs. I had seen so much to relate to in Spadino who was, like me, a biker and (at that point in my life) very lonely. Within 10 minutes most of the victims were dead, 300m of the tunnel was ablaze, trapping 36 vehicles including 25 lorries. This page was last edited on 19 April 2023, at 12:22. On 3/24/1999 the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred when a truck carrying 12 tons of flour and 9 tons of margarine entered the French side of the 7.2-mile tunnel connecting France and Italy in the Alps. No one could survive downwind, but a small Italian crew was able to get quite close to the fire from the other side. The Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy experienced a widely publicized fire disaster in March 1999, when a truck traveling through the 11,6 km long tunnel burst into flames 6 km into the structure. Pedestrians can cross the tunnel by bus; bicycles can also be carried through the tunnel with a reservation. Tunnel du Mont Blanc - Tempratures atteintes dans la chausse et comportement au feu de la chausse, Document The middle of the tunnel today looking toward Italy. At least 35 people died in the 1,800-degree inferno that erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy . Published Nov 24, 2019. At 10:54, one of the drivers called from refuge 22 to raise the alarm. The system proved utterly incapable of pumping in cold air or removing the thick fumes from the burning margarine and flour and the loads of the other blazing trucks, including, it is believed, a tanker containing chlorine. The refuge had a fire door rated to a four-hour standard. what happens if you snitch on the cartel The lessons of the tragedy have guided tunnel design and engineering ever since, including recent American projects like the Port of Miami Tunnel and Seattles new S.R. To this day, no one can say with certainty why the rig caught fire. But I never really dug back into it. Closed-circuit television cameras were installed every few metres in 1995. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. All the deceased were on the French side, and were ultimately reduced to bones and ash by the intense heat. Temperatures reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, and it took a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to reach the bodies. by red crosses) or closing of the tunnel (by traffic lights), are often neglected if not enforced by additional means (eg. The fire refuges were greatly improved in the extensive renovation that followed the 1999 fire. [4] Renovations include computerized detection equipment, extra security bays, a parallel escape shaft and a fire station in the middle of the tunnel complete with double-cabbed fire trucks. At 11:10 six Chamonix firefighters entered the tunnel, but were blocked at the garage 17, 2700 meters from the truck. At the time of its construction, it was three times longer than any existing highway tunnel.[2]. Except for his uniform and motorcycle, he lived a life almost utterly lacking in conspicuity. In 2013, the one-way ticket for a car was 40.90 (41.40 on the Italian side), while the return ticket, valid for 7 days, was 51 (51.60 on the Italian side). The Seattle tunnel includes refuges every 650 feet, which open into a passage with its own fresh air supply a tunnel within the tunnel for escape. BBC NEWS | Europe | Tunnel fire trial opens in France The passageway is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes, particularly for Italy, which relies on this tunnel for transporting as much as one-third of its freight to northern Europe. All of the firefighters were rescued five hours later by a third fire crew that responded and reached them via a ventilation duct; of the 15 firefighters who had been trapped, 14 were in serious condition and one (their commanding officer) later died in the hospital. Structure: Tunnel: . In the days after the fire, regional newspapers credited Tinazzi with rescuing ten people. Within the tunnel, a minimum speed of 50km/h and a maximum speed of 70km/h applies, while the prescribed distance between vehicles is 150 m; trucks are allowed to enter in groups of five. Introduction. It reopened to car traffic in March 2002 and to trucks and buses in the following months. He was Italian, but as it happened, he entered the tunnel from the French side. Remy Chardon, former president of the French company operating the tunnel, was convicted and received a two-year suspended jail term; he was also fined approximately. 35 DEAD IN EUROPE TUNNEL FIRE. The Italian government presented his family with the Medaglia doro al valor civile, a heavy, beautiful medal that is one of the countrys highest honors for civilian bravery. On 27 July 2005, thirteen defendants were found guilty, and received sentences ranging from fines to suspended prison sentences to six months in jail: A memorial plaque on the French side of the tunnel; pictured in 2010, remembering those who were killed in the fire. Ten tried to escape on foot, but it was too far to fresh air, and they couldnt outrun the toxic fumes. The Miami tunnel is a twin-bore tunnel, with a separate passageway for traffic in each direction. Conclusions drawn from the enquiry following the Mont Blanc tunnel fire were that fatal consequences could be greatly reduced by: After the fire of March 24th 1999, the Mont Blanc tunnel required significant renovation before it was able to be reopened to traffic. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via the French Route Nationale 205 and the Italian Traforo T1, in particular the motorways serving Geneva and Turin. As part of my Times research, I spoke to Jean-Marc Berthier, the engineer who reopened the Mont Blanc Tunnel after extensive renovations and safety improvements. Reporters described him making four trips into the tunnel, ferrying people out on his motorcycle. Called the Mont Blanc Vehicular Tunnel, the stretch opened 12 years later. A detailed description of the Mont Blanc, Tauern and St. Gotthard fires including the original configuration of the tunnels, and a step-by-step guide to the incident, fire progression, and the behaviour of operators, emergency services and users, as well as the lessons to be drawn can be foundinthe technical report 05.16B Systems and equipment for fire and smoke control in road tunnels. Save almost 80%: 10.65 instead of 48.80 one way. It was a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to recover bodies. The association writes standards, not laws; its up to the local authorities to adopt them. The US magazine Rider ran an abridged version the next year. [6] Surveillance cameras were installed in 1978. There were 29 deaths of people trapped inside of vehicles, and nine more died trying to escape on foot. the worldwide governing body for motorcycle sport posthumously awarded him a specially cast solid gold medal for motorcycle merit. [1] However, in 2019, a writer researching the story found the full description of the events in French police reports: A motorcycle security guard, Patrick Devouassoux, who survived the fire, did indeed save several people while driving a Renault Express minivan. A cargo truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire while passing through the tunnel and when the driver stopped . 28/04/2023 07:47 Traffic will be totally stopped from 02/05/2023 19:30 to 03/05/2023 06:00 due to extraordinary maintenance works. In hindsight I should have wondered why none of them included photos, names, or quotes from the people hed saved. Eight drivers, including the driver of the Belgian truck thought to have caused the accident, are known to have escaped before the fire reached its height. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly Bike. Twenty-seven people were asphyxiated in cars and trucks. They listened as a river of incandescent margarine ignited fuel tanks and burst the tires of abandoned vehicles. 20-trip package: 228.60; Valid for 2 years in addition to the validation month. They plunged into thick, toxic smoke. Over the next 35 years of uneventful service, those superlatives were taken for granted. But when they occur, they tend to burn long and hot, inflicting damage on the concrete walls that requires months of closure and costs millions of dollars in economic loss. The International Motorcycle Federation, the world governing body of motorcycle sport, presented its highest award to his family. The Mont Blanc tunnel, opened in 1965, underwent a major three-year renovation after the fire, with computerised detection equipment, extra security bays and a parallel escape shaft. At this point, there were at least 10 cars and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. The interviews I conducted with his sister and a few close friends were heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I suppose I would sympathize with a local reporter who on deadline, in the chaos of those first days conflated events from both ends of the tunnel. This phase is the terminal phase of victims as a result of the fire. Corrections? It measures 11.6 kilometers (7.2miles) in length, two-thirds of which lies in France. On 24th March, 1999, the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred, with Tinazzi riding into the tunnel in an attempt to save lives on the French side. Abstract and Figures. I had drawn on the contemporaneous newspaper accounts in Val dAosta and Chamonix for my story. In Italy, he says, We have a disaster or a deadly happening involving several people every week. Fires in long traffic tunnels are rare. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. Following a fire in 1999 in which 39 people died, which showed how lack of coordination could hamper the safety of the tunnel, all the operations are managed by a single entity: MBT-EEIG, controlled by both ATMB and SITMB together, through a 50-50 shares distribution. For each and every one, a non-profit association or event is established. [1] The event expanded into a catastrophe which cost the lives of 39 people. Moreover, this report presents updated statistical data on tunnel collisions (Chapter 3) and fires (Chapter 4) for many countries. As I write this, Ive spent the last week going back over 76 pages of handwritten notes I made on that trip. The initial journey through the tunnel was routine. Le tunnel des Tauern a t ouvert en 1975, celui du St. Gothard en 1980. [5], Due to political turmoil and World War I and World War II, the project did not start until 1959, when excavations on the tunnel officially began. Nothing in the official record suggests his motivation. I started looking into it online. It was some time before investigators released a final, accurate account of the disaster at the Mont Blanc Tunnel: The biker, who was known by his nickname, Spadino, an Italian riff on his skinny frame, had not saved anyone. Fourteen firefighters on two trucks from the ski resort of Chamonix reached the French portal in minutes. They retreated into two fire refuges, small rooms with a dedicated air supply carved into the side of the tunnel every few hundred feet, and closed the fire doors. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety. On 24 March 1999, a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy. The data base used for the calculations are enclosed in Appendix 3 (collisions) and Appendix 4 (fires) respectively. In 2003, with what felt like an angel on my shoulder, I wrote a story that became a myth. In the chaos just after the blaze, local French and Italian newspapers reported that the biker had raced in and out of the burning tunnel, saving as many as 10 people before dying in one last rescue attempt. They warned in a report that the ventilation system would be hopelessly inadequate if a serious accident happened far from a tunnel mouth. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. Broadcast on March 20 at 11:15 p.m. on France 3. [9], This led to a three-year tunnel closure until 9 March 2002. Also known as: Mont Blanc Vehicular Tunnel, Mount Blanc Tunnel. A handful of cars U-turned and got back to the French portal, but the heavy trucks could neither turn, nor back up after visibility dropped to about three feet. French police announced last night that as many as 40 trucks . He was just a quiet man who had tried to do the right thing in the face of an inferno. He was a mild-mannered introvert who loved gardening; occasionally he distributed a bumper crop of vegetables to other workers at the tunnel. Some lessons learned can be given as examples, such as: However, it is not possible to give generally applicable recommendations on the basis of these findings because these may be different in dependence of the specific conditions of an individual country and an individual tunnel. A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for All, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/business/mont-blanc-tunnel-fire-anniversary-rescue.html. While the legend of the biker was exaggerated, the horror of the fire there 20 years ago and its impact on tunnel safety cannot be overstated. For the first time, I began to worry. Forty-one people died in the March 24 fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel connecting France with Italy, which burned for two days. Mont Blanc looming over Lake Leman, in the Swiss Alps. Not your archetypal biker. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. In those countries, post-trial stories acknowledged that the legend was exaggerated. The fire burned for fifty-three hours and was estimated to have reached a temperature of 1,000C (1,830F), mainly because of the margarine load in the trailer, equivalent to a 23,000-litre (5,100impgal; 6,100USgal) oil tanker. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. Members of a direct response crew in the firefighter hangar on the French side. He was asked about the security measures that he ordered, or did not order, to be carried out. In all the years since, no reader ever emailed, or phoned, or tweeted a skeptical thought. On 24 March 1999 a dramatic fire occurred in the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy. I wrote a story that became a legend. Then I discovered it wasn't true. Tinazzi was on the French side of the tunnel, from where he donned breathing equipment and drove into the tunnel on his BMW K75 motorcycle in an attempt to save people trapped in the tunnel; after finding unconscious truck driver Maurice Lebras, who was too heavy to be loaded on his motorcycle, he dragged him to a refuge station in the tunnel, where both were killed by smoke or flames. (Reuters) Despite the wide coverage it received, the news last week that 11 people had died in two separate incidents just days apart on. (I could not immediately reach him for this story. Direction Italy - France. A few minutes after Mr. Tinazzi rode in, two trucks from the Chamonix Fire Department arrived carrying 14 firefighters. Resistance to sprinklers in the name of safety has been a recurring theme. A strong breeze created a blast-furnace effect, igniting the fuel in other abandoned vehicles. Closures and forecasts - Mont Blanc Tunnel An investigation found no evidence of a design fault with the truck. Spadino Pierlucio Tinazzi, who got his nickname, Italian for a thin, light sword, when he was young was just outside the French portal on his motorcycle. misbehaviour of car drivers seems to be the most common cause of tunnel incidents and may also cause problems in incident management (like impeding access of emergency services to the site of incident), in case of a fire drivers sometimes try to pass by the vehicle on fire to continue their ride, despite the potential danger caused by fire and smoke, traffic management measures such as closing of a lane (eg. Between 10:57 and 11:01, Italian firefighters had come within 300 metres of the truck, with two of them able to proceed to the garage 21. So there was a motorcycle guy who died in the fire, and a motorcycle guy who rescued several people; they just werent the same person. He closed the fire door and waited. The second, Into the Flames Fire Underground (aired 2006), revisited the circumstances and showed how new technology in the form of a new type of fire extinguisher could have reduced the scale of the disaster and enabled the fire service to reach and remain in the vicinity to fight the fire. I traveled to Val dAosta on my own dime to write a story that I eventually came to call Searching for Spadino.. Searching for Spadino. That always made my day. A comprehensive safety system - Mont Blanc Tunnel Jean-Marc, who until that point in our conversation had easily recalled facts and anecdotes, told me he couldnt remember the details. Following a fire in 1999 in which 39 people died, which showed how lack of coordination could hamper the safety of the tunnel, all the operations are managed by a single entity: MBT-EEIG, controlled by both ATMB and SITMB together, through a 5050 shares distribution.[4]. Hence a systematic analysis of less severe, but more frequent incidents (collisions and fires) may provide a more representative picutre of real tunnel incidents. Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire Extinguished; Toll at 35 35 DEAD IN EUROPE TUNNEL FIRE - New York Post It had been open nearly 35 years without a single fatal incident until the morning of March 24, 1999. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. However, burning fuel flowed down the road surface, causing tyres and fuel tanks to explode and sending deadly shrapnel in the air, thus spreading fire to other vehicles. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}455358N 65151E / 45.8995N 6.8642E / 45.8995; 6.8642. Four years later, in 2003, I was living in France. Le tunnel du Mont-Blanc tait en son temps le plus long tunnel routier au monde. Tunnel Fire - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics Witnesses reported that the fire had very quickly become too intense to drive past. The Mont Blanc tunnel fire March 1999 killed 39 persons, of which most died within 15 min due to intoxication. At this spot, it lies 2,480 metres (8,140ft) beneath the surface, making it the world's second deepest operational tunnel[3] after the Gotthard Base Tunnel. The French company ATMB and the Italian company SITMB each independently manage and control one half of the tunnel.
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