“Tunnel fire causes further cancellations
By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent
Published: September 12 2008 03:00 | Last updated: September 12 2008 03:00
Firefighters were on Friday still working to extinguish a fire in the Channel tunnel that led to the cancellation of all cross-Channel rail services.
The fire broke out at about 1pm on Thursday 11km from the French end of the 50km Franco-British tunnel when a truck on a Shuttle heading for France caught fire. The 31 truck drivers travelling with the affected train and the train crew were safely evacuated through the service tunnel that runs between the two main tunnels for the trains, said Eurotunnel, the operator.
The fire is at least the third such blaze on a truck Shuttle in the tunnel’s history. The most serious, in November 1996, caused serious damage and required months of work. A smaller fire in August 2006 caused only minor disruption on the day concerned.
Firefighters said they had brought the fire under control by evening. All Eurostar passenger trains between London and Paris and Brussels, all car and truck Shuttles and all cross-Channel freight trains have been cancelled. There were no passenger trains in the tunnel when the fire started.
Eurotunnel said it was working to reopen the facility as quickly as possible but was not able to say when that would be.
Eurostar said it was awaiting instructions from Eurotunnel about when its services could restart. It advised anyone due to travel today whose trip was non-urgent to postpone it.
Thursday’s fire appears to have reached nothing like the temperature and ferocity of the 1996 blaze and is unlikely to have caused anything like the damage of that fire, which destroyed overhead wires, signalling and much of the tunnel’s concrete lining in the worst-affected area.
Truck Shuttles have proved more vulnerable to fire than other trains using the tunnel because heavy trucks tend to carry more potentially dangerous equipment and goods. Another reason is that the vehicles are open to the air in the tunnel, which can fan a smouldering fire into a flame.
The service tunnel’s air is pressurised to ensure it will not fill with smoke. Crews in the truck Shuttles have also been provided with smoke hoods, torches and special training since the 1996 fire, because staff became so disoriented during that incident and were unable to evacuate quickly.
Dedicated units of the local fire brigades are stationed at both ends of the tunnel and equipped with special vehicles that fit down the narrow service tunnel.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
“
