This is exactly what happened almost at the mid- point of the tunnel - underneath western Europe's highest mountain, three and a half miles from the open air - on Wednesday morning. In the tunnel, the margarine had melted and then turned into a highly flammable vapor. The driver stopped, about three miles from daylight in both directions, and with a mile of solid rock above him. It was immediately obvious, as I began to read, that Spadino couldnt have saved anyone. [1] Tinazzi's and Devouassoux's actions were apparently intermingled in subsequent press accounts.[1]. They were blocked at garage 22 and had also abandoned their vehicles, and searched for trapped groups of firefighters who had taken refuge in the fire cubicles. [10] The reopening followed an extensive overhaul of the safety features. . Before they even reached the burning truck, they found themselves in a desperate fight for their own survival. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. Only five United States road tunnels had been equipped with sprinklers. After a long chat over Skype on technical topics, I asked whether he could confirm Tinazzis actions. Some vehicles were still burning yesterday morning; others had been buried by rubble from the collapsed lining of the tunnel. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. As I write this, Ive spent the last week going back over 76 pages of handwritten notes I made on that trip. Balladur claimed that the catastrophe could be attributed to the fact the tunnel had been divided into two sections operated by two companies (one in France, the other in Italy), which failed to coordinate the situation. The tunnel, linking Italy and France, was . We shall answer you as soon as possible. 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. At this point, there were at least 10 cars and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. The agreement between France and Italy on building a tunnel was signed in 1949. Other vehicles traveling through the tunnel quickly became trapped and they also caught fire as firefighters were unable to reach the transport truck. The Mont Blanc Tunnel links Chamonix (France) to Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley (Italy). He had been devastated when his wife, who hated the alpine winters, left him and returned to her native Puglia in the far south. Its not clear whether he suspected trouble or thought he was making a routine trip back to the Italian portal. On that day, atmospheric conditions in the Alps created a fairly strong breeze in the tunnel. Download file to see previous pages. It held that title. At 10:57 and 10:59, two fire trucks from Chamonix responded to the unfolding disaster. In Grenoble, France, 16 people and companies were tried on 31 January 2005 for manslaughter. We learned from Mont Blanc that people dont die from the fire they die from the fumes and smoke, Mr. Hodgkins said. Family members of the victims of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel accident walk next to sprays of flowers laid in memory of the victims, on March 24, 2009 in Chamonix, French Alps, during a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel disaster in which a truck caught fire and 39 people died. It reopened to car traffic in March 2002 and to trucks and buses in the following months. The initial journey through the tunnel was routine. There were no casualties. It is one of the longest vehicular . After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. Resistance to sprinklers in the name of safety has been a recurring theme. Two operating companies were founded, each responsible for one half of the tunnel: the French Autoroutes et tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB), founded on 30 April 1958, and the Italian Societ italiana per azioni per il Traforo del Monte Bianco (SITMB), founded on 1 September 1957. 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.CreditSamuel Zeller for The New York Times. In 1997, a fire detection system was installed along with centralized safety equipment management, and new variable message signs. Published Nov 24, 2019. They were able to see the burning truck. 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. 39 people were killed. Some victims escaped to the fire . Technical report 05.16B Systems and equipment for fire and smoke control in road tunnels. the legal notices related to the use of my personal data. A statement from the Mont Blanc Tunnel and Autoroute, made up of the French and Italian agencies that operate the tunnel, said today that ''despite extreme difficulties in counting the. The director of the tunnel company, Remi Chardon, said earlier that at least 17 and up to 30 people were feared to have died. 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. The passageway is not horizontal, but in a slightly inverted "V", which assists ventilation. 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. Broadcast on March 20 at 11:15 p.m. on France 3. We have 44 jet fans that can operate in either direction, so we can suck air away from the fire, so toxins dont affect people in the tunnel.. In less than two hours, the tunnel was reopened to traffic. All of them survived but their commanding officer, who died in a hospital. 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. Ten tried to escape on foot, but it was too far to fresh air, and they couldnt outrun the toxic fumes. Webcams Account verification Call for Bids. 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. It was certainly selfless, but if the initial newspaper reports had been accurate, I doubt that the FIM and Italian government would have presented their medals. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The data base used for the calculations are enclosed in Appendix 3 (collisions) and Appendix 4 (fires) respectively. which occurred between 1999 and 2001. It was an ordinary truck with ordinary cargo: nine tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour. [Read the original Times coverage of the 1999 fire at the Mont Blanc Tunnel.]. [1] [2] The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. Temperatures reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, and it took a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to reach the bodies. By then tales of Tinazzis bravery had already spread far and wide. . 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. 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 found in the technical report 05.16B Systems and It so shocked civil engineers who specialize in tunnel construction that many remember where they were when they learned the news. The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. [2] Degrave subsequently abandoned his vehicle and ran to the Italian entrance of the tunnel. The major fire incidents of Mont Blanc, Tauern and St. Gotthard (1999 and 2001) led to an increased awareness of the possible impact of incidents in tunnels. The sentence was upheld on appeal. Some had been upgraded in the thirty-four years since construction of the Mont Blanc Tunnel to survive for four hours. Temperatures soared to 1,000C. tunnelmb.net Wikipedia The first thing I realized was that the story I wrote in 2003 had gone viral before going viral was really a thing. An alternative route for road traffic between France to Italy is the Frjus Road Tunnel. I fell asleep that night increasingly certain that I had gotten Searching for Spadino wrong, but lacking real evidence. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. I should have questioned how Tinazzi managed to operate in the French zone, when fully kitted firemen could not. They were eventually rescued via a ventilation duct. The fire spread over 34 vehicles and was finally extinguished after 53 hours. On March 24, 1999, the fire began close to the center of the 7.2-mile tunnel. 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, promoter of safety at international level Mont Blanc and its valleys Territory and open air A cultural crossroads Partnerships History Unitary tunnel management Corporate structure Women and men Important projects and works Details (suppliers, calls for bids, tenders and contracts) Traffic statistics Financial data News When the Mont Blanc tunnel was built in 1965, the transalpine crossing was considered . The tunnel, opened with great fanfare in 1965, is seven miles long. I tell people, This is like a building for cars.. ChamonixCourmayeur11.68.6 Local motorcyclists still gather once a year, meeting on the Italian side, to pay tribute to the biker known as Spadino. Mr. Connell served as chairman of the associations technical committee on tunnel safety from 2005 until 2015. And my curiosity finally got the better of me. It gives me comfort that my portrait of Spadino was accurate, even if my account of what he did during the fire was not. All the deceased were on the French side, and were ultimately reduced to bones and ash by the intense heat. Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. (I could not immediately reach him for this story. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. Tunnel du Mont-Blanc Traforo del Monte Bianco . The next morning, digging deeper, I uncovered a 97-page, minute-by-minute account of the fire, produced by, Le Service Rgional de Police Judiciaire de Lyon. In those countries, post-trial stories acknowledged that the legend was exaggerated. , a feature on him, but I never heard back from the editor. In hindsight I should have wondered why none of them included photos, names, or quotes from the people hed saved. The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Updates? The refuge had a fire door rated to a four-hour standard. It was initiated by a heavy goods vehicle which stopped near the middle of the tunnel and immediately burst into flames. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became . Smoke from the area around the truck's cab was detected by a tunnel smoke
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