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. Tunnel Fire - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics The blaze was traumatic for the close-knit Alpine communities of the French Haute-Savoie region and Val dAosta in Italy. Compounding the emotional toll, a lengthy renovation closed the tunnel and hurt tourist traffic. Regardless, he followed a few other heavy trucks in. Save almost 70%: 15.21 instead of 48.80 one way. Since then, the combined traffic volume of the former has remained roughly constant. In Italy, he says, We have a disaster or a deadly happening involving several people every week. [1] [2] The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. 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. Temperatures in the tunnel reached at least 1,832 degrees . A trial has opened in France to establish responsibility for a fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel which killed 39 people almost six years ago. Prevention, surveillance and detection, intervention: the principles of safety. I wrote a story that became a legend. Then I discovered it wasn't true. Grard Roncoli, the head of security at the tunnel, was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail plus an additional two-year suspended sentence, the heaviest sentence levied against any of the defendants. Although several lines of vehicles can queue up at the toll station, only a limited number of vehicles per unit time is allowed to transit the tunnel to ensure a safety distance between them. At each 300 m, there are rest areas for vehicles with 3.15m width by 30m long located on the alternative side of the roadways . Application. The Italian company responsible for operating the tunnel, SITMB, paid 13.5 million ($17.5 million US) to a fund for the families of the victims. Shortly before 9:00 am . Devouassoux was not riding a motorcycle that day. All the vehicles destroyed appear to have been trapped in the inferno that followed, estimated by officials to have reached a temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius. It was initiated by a heavy goods vehicle which stopped near the middle of the tunnel and immediately burst into flames. It connects the highway systems of France and Italy, and cuts an hour off transport times between Italys industrial north and the rich markets beyond the Alps. The tunnel opened to traffic on 19 July. [1] A commemorative plaque at the Italian entrance honours his sacrifice. At 10:55, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. A remote site for cargo safety inspection was created on each side: Aosta in Italy and Passy-Le Fayet in France. Such was the ferocity of the fire that the rescue workers said it was difficult to tell how many victims had perished in the wreckage. 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). 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. He closed the fire door and waited. by red crosses) or closing of the tunnel (by traffic lights), are often neglected if not enforced by additional means (eg. Over the years, there have been a few occasions when complete strangers thanked me for writing, Searching for Spadino. That always made my day. The death toll from a fire which trapped trucks and cars in the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy is 35, the operator for the Italian side of the tunnel said last . Smoke from the area around the truck's cab was detected by a tunnel smoke Opened in 1965 mainly for tourism and regional trade purposes there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the use of the tunnel by international Heavy Goods Vehicles - particularly after a disaster in 1999 in which 39 victims died in a fire which was started by a truck. + Follow. The experience gained from the investigation into the fire was one of the principal factors that led to the creation of the French Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau.[5]. But I never really dug back into it. Following a fire in 1999 in which 39 people died, which showed how lack of coordination could hamper the safety of the tunnel, all the operations are managed by a single entity: MBT-EEIG, controlled by both ATMB and SITMB together, through a 5050 shares distribution.[4]. The 1999 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire case uses a time-line approach with discussion of events during each time period. The last few drivers who made it into France said the motorcyclist had appeared to be trying to catch up to the burning truck. Without other possibilities, they abandoned their vehicles and took refuge in two of the emergency fire cubicles (fire-door sealed small rooms set into the walls every 600 metres). But I still wondered how so many journalists, beginning with the local papers, and ending with myself, got the facts so wrong. . was the first magazine to print it, in 2003. I had drawn on the contemporaneous newspaper accounts in Val dAosta and Chamonix for my story. Here all trucks are inspected well before the tunnel entrance. By 11:11, more Italian firefighters had come to tackle the fire. I suppose a part of me always worried the story was too good to be true. Moments later, the fire melted the wiring for the lights, plunging the tunnel into darkness. 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]. According to the National Geographic documentary programme Seconds from Disaster, the fire and smoke appeared at around 10:49. Road traffic grew steadily until 1994, even with the opening of the Frjus tunnel. 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. research, I spoke to Jean-Marc Berthier, the engineer who reopened the Mont Blanc Tunnel after extensive renovations and safety improvements. One account reported it to be a cigarette stub carelessly thrown at the truck, which supposedly entered the engine induction snorkel above the cabin, setting the paper air filter on fire. I thought about the tunnel story on and off, usually around the anniversary of the fire. Tinazzi was lauded as a hero for his actions on that day. But in recent weeks I have realized, with a creeping feeling of unease, that it was wrong. The Mont Blanc Tunnel was originally managed by the two building companies. A handful of cars U-turned and got back to the French portal, but the heavy trucks could neither turn, nor back up after visibility dropped to about three feet. Temperatures reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, and it took a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to reach the bodies. Thats the one magazine every other motorcycle editor reads, and so several more ran it in translation. The Italian company [that administered that end of the tunnel] also wanted an Italian hero, because they knew that as legal responsibility for the disaster was assigned, they were in opposition to the French company.. [1] The event expanded into a catastrophe which cost the lives of 39 people. Called the Mont Blanc Vehicular Tunnel, the stretch opened 12 years later. While the legend was exaggerated, the horror of the fire and its impact on tunnel safety cannot be overstated. MIT researcher examines damage to concrete walls in tunnel fires He appeared to be in his 50s at the time of the fire, so its not certain hes still alive. 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. 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. BBC NEWS | Europe | Tunnel fire trial opens in France French police announced last night that as many as 40 trucks . A Belgian lorry carrying margarine and flour skidded into the tunnel side. But the one thing everyone agreed on was that Spadino loved motorcycles. The passageway is not horizontal, but in a slightly inverted "V", which assists ventilation. 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. Il a t mis en service en juillet 1965. [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. In school, his classmates called him Spadino the Italian word for rapier because hed been such a skinny kid. misbehaviour of car drivers seems to be the most common cause of tunnel incidents and may also cause problems in incident management (like impeding access of emergency services to the site of incident), in case of a fire drivers sometimes try to pass by the vehicle on fire to continue their ride, despite the potential danger caused by fire and smoke, traffic management measures such as closing of a lane (eg. (It changed tunnel engineering and safety standards around the world, and is still top of mind for civil engineers working on huge tunnel infrastructure projects like the recently opened SR 99 tunnel in Seattle.). 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. Searching for Spadino wrong, but lacking real evidence. The lessons of the tragedy have guided tunnel design and engineering ever since, including recent American projects like the Port of Miami Tunnel and Seattles new S.R. Then I discovered it wasn't true", Italian decoration "Medaglia d'Oro al Valore Civile", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierlucio_Tinazzi&oldid=1143687156, Dying while trying to rescue survivors of the, This page was last edited on 9 March 2023, at 07:59. 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. [3] Authorities compounded the chimney effect by pumping in further fresh air from the Italian side, escalating the fire whist trapping toxic fumes inside. Experience from past tunnel incidents - PIARC I looked again at the citation for the FIM medal. The jet fans kept the tunnel air clear while it was evacuated. Spadino redux: What if the best story you ever wrote was wrong 10-trip package: 163.30; Valid for 2 years in addition to the validation month. TV documentaries were also made concerning the disaster, all distributed worldwide and focusing on either safety aspects or the circumstances that turned what should have been a serious, but controllable incident into a disaster. A few minutes after Mr. Tinazzi rode in, two trucks from the Chamonix Fire Department arrived carrying 14 firefighters. Chris Hodgkins is the chief executive of Miami Tunnel, the company that built and operates the three-quarter-mile tunnel connecting the Port of Miami with the Interstate highway system. Melted wiring had eliminated any possible light sources in the tunnel; in the smoke and with abandoned and wrecked vehicles blocking their path, both fire engines were unable to proceed, and were blocked at garage 17, 1200 metres from the burning truck. He entered before there was any formal alert. Their bodies were found several hundred metres from the site of the crash, just beyond the halfway point between the French and Italian tunnel mouths. Create your free account to access the additional media materials and receive alerts when new contents are published. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire | A Short Documentary - YouTube Some vehicles were still burning yesterday morning; others had been buried by rubble from the collapsed lining of the tunnel. The second, Into the Flames Fire Underground (aired 2006), revisited the circumstances and showed how new technology in the form of a new type of fire extinguisher could have reduced the scale of the disaster and enabled the fire service to reach and remain in the vicinity to fight the fire. At 10:54, one of the drivers called from refuge 22 to raise the alarm. 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 part of my Times research, I spoke to Jean-Marc Berthier, the engineer who reopened the Mont Blanc Tunnel after extensive renovations and safety improvements. In the end, we all believe in the things that help us get through our days. Four years later, in 2003, I was living in France. [7], The tunnel underwent extensive modernisation works in 1990, including the addition of safety features such new video surveillance cameras, 8 pressurized emergency shelters, a sprinkler system and other safety maintenance. On 24 March 1999, a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy. The report revealed that Tinazzi was outside the tunnel, at the French portal, when the Belgian truck entered; Id been right about that much. The tunnel, linking Italy and France, was . Some victims escaped to the fire . Thats the one magazine every other motorcycle editor reads, and so several more ran it in translation. 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.. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. ChamonixCourmayeur11.68.6 The French company ATMB and the Italian company SITMB each independently manage and control one half of the tunnel. Not your archetypal biker. The fire spread over 34 vehicles and was finally extinguished after 53 hours. In the days after the fire, regional newspapers credited Tinazzi with rescuing ten people. It is one of the major trans-alpine routes, and up to a third of Italy's freight passed through it, with 766,000 heavy goods vehicles using the tunnel in 1998. Download file to see previous pages. Anyone can read what you share. I should have questioned how Tinazzi managed to operate in the French zone, when fully kitted firemen could not. 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 Volvo trundled in, on its way to Italy. It has cross-passages every 450 feet so that, in a fire, people can escape through the other tunnel. The Mont Blanc Tunnel | SeeChamonix.com , a feature on him, but I never heard back from the editor. This channel is for documentaries for educational use. But he died trying to do so, and local bikers still gather at the tunnel mouth once a year to honor him. Northeast of Mont Blanc's summit, the tunnel is about 15km (10mi) southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent. No one could survive downwind, but a small Italian crew was able to get quite close to the fire from the other side. Toxicity Limit States in Tunnel Fire Safety Designs Mont Blanc Tunnel re -opens 3 years after tragic fire in Chamonix, France on March 09, 2002. Fire detection in the Mont Blanc Tunnel - LIOS SENSING Two decades ago, 39 people died inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel in a fire so horrific it changed safety standards forever. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire. What Happened and What Has Been Learned At least 35 people died in the 1,800-degree inferno that erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy . The truth eventually caught up to the legend of a man who rushed in. 17 inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. 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. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. Berthier talked to me about the first Memorial Spadino biker gathering. He was, unromantically, driving a Renault Express minivan. He had been devastated when his wife, who hated the alpine winters, left him and returned to her native Puglia in the far south. Within a minute or two, it caught fire. ICYMI:WSJreporter explains why he was fired, Fdration Internationale de Motocyclisme. The magnitude of death and destruction reverberated widely. 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. The US magazine Rider ran an abridged version the next year. The Miami tunnel is a twin-bore tunnel, with a separate passageway for traffic in each direction. They saved several people, ferrying them out to the Italian portal. The interviews I conducted with his sister and a few close friends were heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for All, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/business/mont-blanc-tunnel-fire-anniversary-rescue.html. The tunnel crossing is subject to a toll; the toll differs from Italy to France because of their different VAT rates. Of course my readers are almost all English-speaking motorcyclists who would prefer to believe my original version, anyway. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. And he soft-pedaled his actions in the days after the fire, because he didnt want to take anything away from Tinazzis sacrifice. 35 DEAD IN EUROPE TUNNEL FIRE - New York Post 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. [4] Of course now, Im embarrassed that it took me 14 years to correct the record. Pierlucio Tinazzi (lost radio communication from Mont Blanc Tunnel fire On 24th March, 1999, a Volvo lorry travelling from France to Italy stopped and burst into flames midway through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. I would never have traveled to Val dAosta in search of the heros backstory. With a length of 11.6km, the Mont Blanc Tunnel is constructed from one tube through which the traffic flows in both directions. The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. 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. On 24th March 1999 a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc tunnel between Italy and France. The fire burned for 50 hours. a more efficient organisation of operational and emergency services (harmonised, safer and more efficient emergency procedures, specifically for cross-border operation). A cargo truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire while passing through the tunnel and when the driver stopped . Tinazzi was on the French side of the tunnel, from where he donned breathing equipment and drove into the tunnel on his BMW K75 motorcycle in an attempt to save people trapped in the tunnel; after finding unconscious truck driver Maurice Lebras, who was too heavy to be loaded on his motorcycle, he dragged him to a refuge station in the tunnel, where both were killed by smoke or flames.
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