A cargo truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire while passing through the tunnel and when the driver stopped . I went to the tunnel control center, and to the local Carabinieri post, where I spoke to managers and cops who must have known that the accounts published in 1999 were exaggerated. As I write this, Ive spent the last week going back over 76 pages of handwritten notes I made on that trip. An investigation found no evidence of a design fault with the truck. The damage to the tunnel was so severe that it took almost three . They were able to see the burning truck. The last few drivers who made it into France said the motorcyclist had appeared to be trying to catch up to the burning truck. Witnesses reported that the fire had very quickly become too intense to drive past. Paolo Sormani, the motorcycle writer who had initially been reticent, seemed to have a change of heart a few days later, when he wrote back in Italian-accented English to explain. The devastating fire led many countries to issue revised safety standards for tunnel design and engineering, including sprinkler systems, emergency response plans, and two-way ventilation systems that can quickly withdraw suffocating smoke. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. Compounding the emotional toll, a lengthy renovation closed the tunnel and hurt tourist traffic. It was more than five days before the tunnel cooled sufficiently to start repairs. French highway network. Il a t mis en service en juillet 1965. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly. A French engineer, Jean-Marc Berthier, led development of a unified safety protocol for the Franco-Italian venture, and served as the tunnels administrator for the next few years. But he died trying to do so, and local bikers still gather at the tunnel mouth once a year to honor him. [6], Three years later the tunnel was inaugurated by the French president, Charles de Gaulle, and the Italian President, Giuseppe Saragat on 16 July 1965. 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. [7] The closest smoke detector was out of order, and French emergency services did not use the same radio frequency as those inside the tunnel. Ten tried to escape on foot, but it was too far to fresh air, and they couldnt outrun the toxic fumes. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became . 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. I got caught on the phrase entered the smoke-filled tunnel from the Italian side, because I knew Tinazzi wasnt on the Italian side. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The French company ATMB and the Italian company SITMB each independently manage and control one half of the tunnel. the legal notices related to the use of my personal data. We learned from Mont Blanc that people dont die from the fire they die from the fumes and smoke, Mr. Hodgkins said. Do not hesitate to send us your comments, questions and suggestions. He was Italian, but as it happened, he entered the tunnel from the French side. The opening was successful, with an axis variation of less than 13 centimetres (5 inches). greater awareness among users (car and truck drivers) on how to behave in emergency situations. Their trucks stuck now, the firefighters retreated into two refuges. The first, Seconds from Disaster Tunnel Inferno (aired 2004), was a reconstruction of the events leading up to and during the disaster and the conclusions of the investigation that followed. Le tunnel du St. Gothard est le plus long (16 920 m), suivi par le tunnel du Mont Blanc et le tunnel des Tauern (11 600 m et 6 400 m respectivement). 20 another refuge and closed the fire door, which guaranteed safety from a fire for four hours. Organise and calculate tunnel transit. Safety precautions have been tightened in recent years. 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. (I could not immediately reach him for this story. Nearly 2,000 people died and some 9,000 were injured in the disaster, which flattened more than 1 square mile (2.5 square km) of the city of Halifax. All of them survived but their commanding officer, who died in a hospital. , a feature on him, but I never heard back from the editor. A year after the fire, thousands of bikers gathered at the Italian portal to commemorate him. Moreover, this report presents updated statistical data on tunnel collisions (Chapter 3) and fires (Chapter 4) for many countries. All the deceased were on the French side, and were ultimately reduced to bones and ash by the intense heat. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. When the reports of Tinazzis daring and tragic motorcycle rescue first reached North America, I pitched the biggest US motorcycle magazine, Cycle World, a feature on him, but I never heard back from the editor. Over the years, there have been a few occasions when complete strangers thanked me for writing. Berthier talked to me about the first Memorial Spadino biker gathering. 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. Both French and Italian firefighters criticised the ventilation system, unchanged since the tunnel was built and attacked in an official report last year. He was just a quiet man who had tried to do the right thing in the face of an inferno. Called the Mont Blanc Vehicular Tunnel, the stretch opened 12 years later. Temperatures reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, and it took a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to reach the bodies. The tunnel diverts traffic that used to crawl through downtown. These catastrophes demonstrated the need for improving preparation for, as well as preventing and mitigating, tunnel incidents. People think of tunnels as a hole through the ground, he said, but thats not the case anymore. Le tunnel du Mont-Blanc tait en son temps le plus long tunnel routier au monde. Structure: Tunnel: . The central ventilation hangar on the Italian side helps control the air in the tunnel. [1] Tinazzi was in radio contact with the Italian side for over an hour before succumbing to the intense heat, which caused his motorcycle to melt into the pavement. Four years later, in 2003, I was living in France. 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. When built, it was the worlds longest road tunnel, linking the French and Italian highway systems and shortening truck routes between Italys industrial north and other parts of Europe. It has cross-passages every 450 feet so that, in a fire, people can escape through the other tunnel. It was immediately obvious, as I began to read, that Spadino couldnt have saved anyone. On March 24, 1999, the fire began close to the center of the 7.2-mile tunnel. Only five United States road tunnels had been equipped with sprinklers. Thirty-five people died in a fire that turned a stretch of the Mont Blanc road tunnel between France and Italy into a furnace, regional authorities said yesterday. It reads in part: The motorcyclist Pierlucio Tinazzi entered the smoke filled tunnel from the Italian side a number of times and successfully brought out on his motorcycle many motorists whose vehicles had been trapped inside the tunnel. 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. 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. It reopened to car traffic in March 2002 and to trucks and buses in the following months. [5] This was preceded by the signing of a national charter for the tunnel construction, ratified by the parliaments of France (1957) and Italy (1954). They plunged into increasingly dense smoke and, after the fire melted the tunnels electrical wiring, total darkness. Learn how and when to remove these template messages, personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay, Learn how and when to remove this template message, French Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau, "The Fire of 1999 - Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc", "Case Studies: Historical Fires: Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire, Italy/France", "Infrastructural Fires: Mont Blanc Tunnel, Italy", "Land transport accident investigation bureau (BEA-TT)", "Guilty Verdicts in Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire Trial", "Procs du Mont-Blanc: Grard Roncoli condamn en appel 6 mois de prison ferme", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mont_Blanc_Tunnel_fire&oldid=1150665494, Gilbert Degrave, the Belgian driver of the truck that caught fire in the tunnel, The French and Italian managers of the tunnel, A senior official of the French Ministry of Public Works. For the first time, I began to worry. The fire spread to other cargo vehicles nearby that also carried combustible loads. The fire burned for 50 hours. We shall answer you as soon as possible. the worldwide governing body for motorcycle sport posthumously awarded him a specially cast solid gold medal for motorcycle merit. 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. 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. This can be achieved by the provision of safe design criteria for new tunnels, as well as effective management and possible upgrading of in-service tunnels, and through improved information and better communications with tunnel users. Shortly before 9:00 am . In Grenoble, France, 16 people and companies were tried on 31 January 2005 for manslaughter. [1] [2] The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. Otherwise it was conventionally driven from two headings, the Italian and French crews beginning work in 1958 and 1959, respectively, and meeting in August 1962. The memorial on the French side honoring the 39 people who died in the tunnel blaze. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the Volvo truck without stopping. The likelihood of escalation of incidents into major events is low, however the consequences of such incidents can be severe in terms of victims, damage to the structure and impact on the transport economy. The driver stopped, about three miles from daylight in both directions, and with a mile of solid rock above him. Due to weather conditions at the time, airflow through the tunnel was from the Italian side to the French side. The Italians were assisted by a French motorcycle security guard named Patrick Devouassoux, who happened to be on the Italian side when the fire broke out. 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. 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. It includes heat detectors that can locate a fire to within 10 feet, and, as in Miami, a deluge system can dump several tropical rainstorms worth of water into a fire zone, while leaving the rest of the tunnel dry. This had forced Italian firefighters to retreat, and they rescued 12 people from Italian side. Defendants in the trial included: The exact cause of the fire is disputed. Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. The tunnel is equipped with the following safety facilities: Every 100 m portable fire extinguishers Every 300 m garages 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 magnitude of death and destruction reverberated widely. Victims 11 deaths 5 deaths 155 deaths 12 deaths 39 deaths 5 deaths 2 injured Vehicles damaged 10 cars 23 lorries . The tunnel is a single bore two-lane tunnel with the shape of a horseshoe with a 7m wide roadway and two 0.8 walkways on either side. At least 35 people died in the 1,800-degree inferno that erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy . The tunnel, opened with great fanfare in 1965, is seven miles long. Refuges equipped with telephones, and capable of sheltering up to 40 people were excavated every 600 metres in 1991. ICYMI:Newspaper upgrades CEOs housing stipend to $35K a month amid buyouts. By then tales of Tinazzis bravery had already spread far and wide. Some victims escaped to the fire . 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. That same year, the STMB (Socit du tunnel du Mont Blanc) was formed, which became ATMB (Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc) in 1996. Before they even reached the burning truck, they found themselves in a desperate fight for their own survival. Other vehicles traveling through the tunnel quickly became trapped and they also caught fire as firefighters were unable to reach the transport truck. A year after the fire, thousands of bikers gathered at the Italian portal to commemorate him. In Italy, he says, We have a disaster or a deadly happening involving several people every week. In all the years since, no reader ever emailed, or phoned, or tweeted a skeptical thought. When the full report on the Mont Blanc fire finally came out, it was evident that additional measures of fire protection and emergency response planning would have reduced the significance of the fire, Mr. Connell recalled. However, most studies of fire toxicity have been regarding lethality, for . In a subsequent email exchange, Jean-Marc Berthier pointed out that Spadino was not trained or equipped to fight a fire. 39 people were killed. The middle of the tunnel today looking toward Italy. The seven-mile-long bore, linking France and Italy, carries up to 4,000 trucks a day, many times the level of traffic for which it was designed in the early 1960s. This motorcycle, scooter or moped-related article is a stub. Unlike long- distance road and rail tunnels built more recently, it has just one bore and two lanes, one each for northbound and southbound traffic. This channel is for documentaries for educational use. 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 Investigations following the horrific tunnel fire that claimed the lives of 39 travellers and closed the vital France-Italy Alpine route to all traffic in March 1999, revealed that safety aspects of the Mont Blanc highway tunnel fell far short of adequate standards for the busy 11.4km single-tube, two-lane, bi-directional road tunnel. Pierlucio Tinazzi was employed as a security guard to patrol the tunnel by motorcycle to ensure a steady flow of traffic. To this day, no one can say with certainty why the rig caught fire. It began on March 24, 1999 when a Volvo FH12 semi-truck from Belgium, carrying a cargo of nine tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour, stopped to pay the toll at the French portal of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. The Mont Blanc Tunnel links Chamonix (France) to Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley (Italy). The initial journey through the tunnel was routine. The Mont Blanc Tunnel that connects Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via European route E25 through the Alps, was the scene of a fatal fire that took the lives of 38 people on this day in 1999. ), Antoine Chandellier is a French journalist who has reported on the Haute Savoie region for decades. 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. Fires in European tunnels have clearly shown the risks and consequences of tunnel fires with large vehicles. But I never really dug back into it. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. When it was opened it was the worlds longest and deepest road tunnel. In fact, there had been 16 other truck fires in the tunnel over the previous 35 years, always extinguished on the spot by the drivers. The blaze was traumatic for the close-knit Alpine communities of the French Haute-Savoie region and Val dAosta in Italy. [1] Drilling began in 1959 and was completed in 1962; the tunnel was opened to traffic on 19 July 1965. Spadino might have seen something, or heard something from one of the drivers exiting the tunnel, that made him suspect that a truck was in trouble. [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. Temperatures reached 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. 20. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. In the Mont Blanc tunnel fire in 1999, for example, over 20 lorries were destroyed, and several people lost their lives. But the one thing everyone agreed on was that Spadino loved motorcycles. Extract of sample "Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire". The fire trapped around 40 vehicles in dense and poisonous smoke containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. A spokesman for the. Then on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, this year, I was commissioned to write a feature for, , looking back on the fire as the worlds most closely examined road disaster. With a length of 11.6km, the Mont Blanc Tunnel is constructed from one tube through which the traffic flows in both directions. The heat was so intense and the fumes so thick that the first group of Italian firefighters who tried to approach the inferno were forced to retreat through the ventilation shafts. 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. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. He had been presented with medals and buried with honors long before I arrived in Val dAosta. P. Blomqvist, M. Simonson-McNamee, in Fire Toxicity, 2010 Simulated vehicle fire in road tunnel. Resistance to sprinklers in the name of safety has been a recurring theme. Gilbert Degrave, the driver of the truck, received a four-month suspended sentence. Twenty years ago, Pierlucio "Spadino" Tinazzi was a security guard who patrolled the Mont Blanc tunnel in the Alps by motorcycle, in order to ensure a steady flow of traffic. Italian firefighters finally reached the epicentre of the blaze yesterday, 48 hours later. The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. It fulfilled a 150-year-old dream and is of great economic importance, providing a significantly shortened year-round automotive route between the two countries. The 1999 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire case uses a time-line approach with discussion of events during each time period. Thirty-nine people were killed. 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! Two decades ago, 39 people died inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel in a fire so horrific it changed safety standards forever. A reporter asked for 20 years of lottery winner data. In school, his classmates called him Spadino the Italian word for rapier because hed been such a skinny kid. But I never really dug back into it. An emblem for human courage in the face of adversity, and an inspiration for motorcyclists like me, that swept the world in its small way. No one could survive downwind, but a small Italian crew was able to get quite close to the fire from the other side. Of course now, Im embarrassed that it took me 14 years to correct the record. Chapter 3 "Lessons learned from recent fires". After a long chat over Skype on technical topics, I asked whether he could confirm Tinazzis actions. Newspaper upgrades CEOs housing stipend to $35K a month amid buyouts. However, the idea did not receive widespread attention until 1907, when Francesco Farinet, a Member of Parliament of the Aosta Valley, advocated constructing of the tunnel. was the first magazine to print it, in 2003. He entered before there was any formal alert. But Id taken pride in this story for so long. On the morning of 24 March 1999, 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine, which had entered the French-side portal, caught fire in the tunnel.[1][2]. The Mont Blanc Tunnel was originally managed by the two building companies. Over the next 35 years of uneventful service, those superlatives were taken for granted. "Inside the vehicles, you can see skeletons and human remains but it is impossible to say how many," an Italian official said. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Any people in the security bays now have video contact with the control centre, so they can communicate with the people trapped inside and inform them about what is happening in the tunnel more clearly. The region needed a hero, and soon after the fire, the government of Italy honored Mr. Tinazzi with a gold medal 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. 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. 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. The 16 defendants include individuals and companies. In his last radio communication with the control room, Mr. Tinazzi said he had dragged the trucker into a fire refuge off the main tunnel. what happens if you snitch on the cartel. [2] Degrave subsequently abandoned his vehicle and ran to the Italian entrance of the tunnel. It took a week for the tunnel to cool enough to recover their bodies, and those of the 36 others who had perished in the tunnel. The told and retold story that, before finding Lebras, Spadino had exited to safety and returned over and over, rescuing 10 other people had been publicly debunked by the French judicial police in 2005. The data base used for the calculations are enclosed in Appendix 3 (collisions) and Appendix 4 (fires) respectively. Members of a direct response crew in the firefighter hangar on the French side. The tunnel operator, Mont Blanc Tunnel and Highway, said about 20 tractor-trailer trucks and 11 cars were destroyed in the blaze. 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.
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