Firefighters from France and England were still battling a blaze yesterday in a tunnel under the English Channel a day after it broke out and undersea train traffic remained suspended, France’s transportation minister said.
Dominique Bussereau said he was “incapable of saying today [Friday] when the traffic could resume” in the tunnel, closed off after the fire broke out on Thursday afternoon on a truck aboard a 30-car shuttle train traveling from England to France.
Fourteen people were injured in the fire, including six who suffered from smoke inhalation. It was among the most serious incidents in the history of the 50km tunnel, which opened to passengers in 1994.
“First we have to put out the fire, we have to inspect what happened, ventilate the tunnel,” Bussereau said on Europe-1 radio.
The cause of the fire remained unclear.
Bussereau said it “likely resembles something accidental,” without elaborating.
Jacques Gounon, chief executive of Eurotunnel, which operates the tunnel, said he had no reason to believe the fire could have been “criminal.”
The Channel Tunnel is composed of three tunnels, each 40m beneath the sea bed. One tunnel carries shuttles, Eurostar passenger trains and freight traffic from France to England, while another runs in the opposite direction.
The pair are connected to a central service tunnel, used for maintenance and emergency access. The central tunnel is kept under a higher pressure than the train tunnels it flanks to keep out smoke in case of fire.
Gounon said on RTL radio that traffic could resume in the southern tunnel later yesterday at half its usual capacity. He said the damaged part of the northern tunnel would remain closed “for several weeks.”
However, Eurostar, which operates the passenger service through the tunnel, said in a statement that it did not expect to resume services yesterday.
Eurotunnel, which has been plagued by financial troubles and crushing debt, assured investors in a statement that any financial impact of the accident “will be limited.”
Eurotunnel shares dropped 4 percent on Thursday after the fire broke out and another 3.2 percent in early Paris trading yesterday to 9 euros (US$12.54).
The train was carrying 32 people — mostly truck drivers accompanying their vehicles — in mid-afternoon when the fire erupted about 11km from the French side, officials said. All were evacuated safely.
The fire broke out on a single truck on the train, with the truck drivers occupying a railcar ahead.
Six people were taken to a hospital after inhaling large quantities of smoke, officials said. Another eight were treated for light injuries. Some injured their hands by trying to break the train’s windows to get out, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Thursday.
Two of the injured “said they heard an explosion followed by flames,” she told reporters after arriving in the area.
Eurotunnel and local officials could not confirm yesterday whether there had been an explosion.
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