Print

Mail

wiki links

Two killed in tunnel fire

A truck loaded with tires and another carrying glue caught fire along with four other vehicles Saturday inside an Alpine tunnel between France and Italy, killing at least two people, officials said.

Traffic through the 13km Frejus tunnel was halted as firefighters rushed into the passage after the fire broke out, the national highway information center said.

One victim was a truck driver who had fled his vehicle and ran about a kilometer through heavy smoke toward a safety area before collapsing, said French regional official Sylvaine Astic.

The body of a second person was found in the same safety zone, she said.

A total of six vehicles -- the tire truck, a truck transporting glue, two other tractor-trailers and two fire vehicles were burned, said Lieutenant Colonel Michel Decker of the Savoie region fire brigade.

Temperatures inside the tunnel reached up to 9000 Celsius, Decker said, adding that the glue contained polymer resins that grows highly toxic when heated.

Authorities said the tunnel had been fully evacuated, with only firefighters inside putting out the remnants of the blaze.

An investigation of the cause was under way, with rescue teams combing through ventilation shafts between the various safety zones in the tunnel.

The tire truck was losing fuel before the fire broke out, said an official of Sitaf, the company the runs the Italian side of the tunnel, citing video filmed on one of the closed-circuit cameras inside.

"You can see the diesel that is leaking from the turbo-compressor of the truck with the tires," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Sitaf official Ugo Jallasse as saying.

"It's likely that there was a mechanical problem. The fuel ends up on the engine and goes on fire. In a moment, the vehicle is engulfed by fire," Jallasse said.

The flames spread to two other vehicles within seconds, he said.

"All of a sudden, I saw smoke pour into the right side of my truck," Dalibor Biksanovic, a 23-year-old Serb, told ANSA. The agency identified him as the driver of the tire truck.

Fifteen people were evacuated to an emergency tent camp at the French entrance, and seven were treated for smoke inhalation, French officials said.

The blaze revived memories of the 1999 fire in the nearby Mont Blanc tunnel that killed 39 people. That fire burned for two days while firefighters tried to reach the trapped cars.

The Frejus tunnel entered service in 1980, linking the French town of Modane with Bardonecchia, Italy. It features safety zones every 300m. Its fire alarm systems were renovated as a precaution after the Mont Blanc tunnel fire, with the installation of new warning lights and improvements to evacuation measures.
This story has been viewed 1804 times.