mont blanc tunnel fire victims names

In the days after the fire, regional newspapers credited Tinazzi with rescuing ten people. A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for research, I spoke to Jean-Marc Berthier, the engineer who reopened the Mont Blanc Tunnel after extensive renovations and safety improvements. On March 24, 1999, the fire began close to the center of the 7.2-mile tunnel. At 10:55, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. Four years later, in 2003, I was living in France. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. 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. 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. Sure enough, in December 2017, a car erupted into flames in the tunnel. In the end, we all believe in the things that help us get through our days. The idea of building a tunnel underneath the Mont Blanc to avoid the need for lengthy circumnavigation dates back to the nineteenth century during the heyday of the railway. That same year, the STMB (Socit du tunnel du Mont Blanc) was formed, which became ATMB (Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc) in 1996. Local motorcyclists still gather once a year, meeting on the Italian side, to pay tribute to the biker known as Spadino. Except for his uniform and motorcycle, he was entirely inconspicuous. At least 35 people died in the 1,800-degree inferno that erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy . Mont Blanc Tunnel fire - Wikipedia In the Mont Blanc tunnel fire in 1999, for example, over 20 lorries were destroyed, and several people lost their lives. 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. 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. Five tunnel fires, all in Europe, resulted in 72 deaths. On 3/24/1999 the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred when a truck carrying 12 tons of flour and 9 tons of margarine entered the French side of the 7.2-mile tunnel connecting France and Italy in the Alps. An alternative route for road traffic between France to Italy is the Frjus Road Tunnel. Webcams Account verification Call for Bids. In less than two hours, the tunnel was reopened to traffic. (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.). 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. Eleven bodies had been accounted for by yesterday afternoon but now up to 30 more people are feared missing. Berthier talked to me about the first Memorial Spadino biker gathering. This was not yet considered a fire emergency. 10-trip package: 163.30; Valid for 2 years in addition to the validation month. March 20, 2023 by archyde. Their trucks stuck now, the firefighters retreated into two refuges. [1] [2] The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. They were able to see the burning truck. Tunnel du Mont-Blanc Traforo del Monte Bianco . Most of the victims had almost certainly suffocated before they burned. The judicial inquiry is expected to concentrate on the safety standards of the 34-year- old single-bore tunnel - especially the absence of an escape tunnel and the adequacy of the ventilation system. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly Bike. Technical report 05.05B Fire and smoke control in road tunnels. Select from premium Mont Blanc Tunnel of the highest quality. Emergency shelter No. But Id taken pride in this story for so long. When the Florida Department of Transportation decided to construct its first major road tunnel in 2010, the associations 502 standard was incorporated into the Florida Fire Prevention Code. In 2010, the average traffic volume was 4,945 vehicles per day, or around 1.80 million vehicles per year. [1] A commemorative plaque at the Italian entrance honours his sacrifice. Death toll from tunnel fire rises to 35 after firemen conquer blaze 38 road users and a fireman lost their lives in the . 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. The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Near the fire, he came upon Maurice Lebras, a French truck driver who was unconscious. Corrections? Prevention, surveillance and detection, intervention: the principles of safety. The jet fans kept the tunnel air clear while it was evacuated. The US magazine, ran an abridged version the next year. [2] Degrave subsequently abandoned his vehicle and ran to the Italian entrance of the tunnel. Road traffic grew steadily until 1994, even with the opening of the Frjus tunnel. 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. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. At 10:54, one of the drivers called from refuge 22 to raise the alarm. I started looking into it online. 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. The refuge had a fire door rated to a four-hour standard. Do not hesitate to send us your comments, questions and suggestions. Introduction. Some had been upgraded in the thirty-four years since construction of the Mont Blanc Tunnel to survive for four hours. PDF Overview on the traffic situation in European tunnels - Ditzingen Four years later, in 2003, I was living in France. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. A strong breeze created a blast-furnace effect, igniting the fuel in other abandoned vehicles. The blaze was traumatic for the close-knit Alpine communities of the French Haute-Savoie region and Val dAosta in Italy. An honor guard filled the tiny cemetery where he was buried. At this point, there were at least 10 cars and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. These topics are also addressed systematically in thetechnical report 2016 R35 Experience with Significant Incidents in Road Tunnels. It would have been the story that led my obituary. 20-trip package: 228.60; Valid for 2 years in addition to the validation month. It was immediately obvious, as I began to read, that Spadino couldnt have saved anyone. 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. Broadcast on March 20 at 11:15 p.m. on France 3. Due to weather conditions at the time, airflow through the tunnel was from the Italian side to the French side. 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. Mont Blanc Tunnel - Wikipedia 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. A year after the fire, thousands of bikers gathered at the Italian portal to commemorate him. On the fifth trip, he came across a French truck driver named Maurice Lebras, who was alive but unconscious, according to messages Tinazzi communicated via a tunnel intercom. I suppose I would sympathize with a local reporter who on deadline, in the chaos of those first days conflated events from both ends of the tunnel. The tunnel underwent major changes in the three years it remained closed after 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. Thats the one magazine every other motorcycle editor reads, and so several more ran it in translation. The Mont Blanc tunnel, opened in 1965, underwent a major three-year renovation after the fire, with computerised detection equipment, extra security bays and a parallel escape shaft. Today in Fire History 3/24 - LinkedIn Jean-Marc, who until that point in our conversation had easily recalled facts and anecdotes, told me he couldnt remember the details. Serious questions about the safety of the tunnel were raised by rescue organisations last year. Mont Blanc looming over Lake Leman, in the Swiss Alps. And maybe that is enough. [9], This led to a three-year tunnel closure until 9 March 2002. At 10:53, the driver of the vehicle, Gilbert Degrave, stopped 6 km into the 11.6 km tunnel, in attempt to fight the fire but he was suddenly forced back when the payload violently combusted. Built in 1980, the Gotthard has had increased traffic since a 1999 fire forced the closure of the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy. Victims 11 deaths 5 deaths 155 deaths 12 deaths 39 deaths 5 deaths 2 injured Vehicles damaged 10 cars 23 lorries . . 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. The association writes standards, not laws; its up to the local authorities to adopt them. 35 DEAD IN EUROPE TUNNEL FIRE. Pierlucio Tinazzi (lost radio communication from Mont Blanc Tunnel fire The tunnel is equipped with the following safety facilities: Every 100 m portable fire extinguishers Every 300 m garages In 2011, there were an average of 5,113 vehicles per day (about 1.87 million vehicles per year). This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mont-Blanc-Tunnel, British Broadcasting Corporation - Mont Blanc tunnel. In 2003, with what felt like an angel on my shoulder, I wrote a story that became a myth. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. 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. French police announced last night that as many as 40 trucks . an Italian security guard who perished while rescuing survivors of the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire. Italian firefighters finally reached the epicentre of the blaze yesterday, 48 hours later. All of the firefighters were rescued five hours later by a third fire crew that responded and reached them via a ventilation duct; of the 15 firefighters who had been trapped, 14 were in serious condition and one (their commanding officer) later died in the hospital. The fire spread over 34 vehicles and was finally extinguished after 53 hours. Other vehicles traveling through the tunnel quickly became trapped and they also caught fire as firefighters were unable to reach the transport truck. It had been open nearly 35 years without a single fatal incident until the morning of March 24, 1999. The Miami tunnel is a twin-bore tunnel, with a separate passageway for traffic in each direction. 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. 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. The sentence was upheld on appeal. 39 people were killed. 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. Refuges equipped with telephones, and capable of sheltering up to 40 people were excavated every 600 metres in 1991. Some victims escaped to the fire . We have recently seen the 18th anniversary of one of the most serious road tunnel incidents in Europe, when on 24 March 1999, in the Mont Blanc tunnel, a vehicle carrying flour and margarine was involved in a deadly fire which claimed so many lives. This motorcycle, scooter or moped-related article is a stub. 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. In March 1999 a two-day fire killed 39 people and caused extensive damage to the tunnel, forcing it to close. The fire spread to other cargo vehicles nearby that also carried combustible loads. 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.. 35 die, 1 Briton missing in Mont Blanc tunnel fire ), Antoine Chandellier is a French journalist who has reported on the Haute Savoie region for decades. Swiss Tunnel Inferno - CBS News Pierlucio Tinazzi, an Italian security guard who died attempting to rescue a truck driver, was posthumously awarded Italy's Medaglia d'Oro al Valore Civile.[6]. Northeast of Mont Blanc's summit, the tunnel is about 15km (10mi) southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent. An international survey of major tunnel fires can be found in the technical report 05.16B Systems and equipment for fire and smoke control in road tunnels, Table 2.1 "Serious fires accidents in road tunnels". Temperatures in the tunnel reached at least 1,832 degrees . The agreement between France and Italy on building a tunnel was signed in 1949. Mont Blanc Tunnel re -opens 3 years after tragic fire in Chamonix, France on March 09, 2002. As I write this, Ive spent the last week going back over 76 pages of handwritten notes I made on that trip. The Fdration Internationale de Motocyclisme the worldwide governing body for motorcycle sport posthumously awarded him a specially cast solid gold medal for motorcycle merit. The 1999 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire case uses a time-line approach with discussion of events during each time period. The tunnel consists of a single gallery with a two-lane dual direction road. Table 2.1 "Serious fires accidents in road tunnels, Chapter 3 "Lessons learned from recent fires", Routes/Roads 324 "A comparative analysis of the Mont-Blanc, Tauern and Gotthard tunnel fires". [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. Finding any mistake in a published story is deflating. Safety precautions have been tightened in recent years. These remote sites are also used as staging areas, to smooth the peaks of commercial traffic. However, most studies of fire toxicity have been regarding lethality, for . That tunnel blaze killed 39 people. 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. The first thing I realized was that the story I wrote in 2003 had gone viral before going viral was really a thing. I traveled to Val dAosta on my own dime to write a story that I eventually came to call Searching for Spadino.. At the time, considering that four years had already gone by since the fire, I concluded that French and Italian bureaucrats were deliberately dragging the investigation out, to keep the records sealed, so that neither side would ever have to accept blame. Mont Blanc Tunnel | Description, History, Construction, Fire, & Facts In Italy, he says, We have a disaster or a deadly happening involving several people every week. By 11:11, more Italian firefighters had come to tackle the fire. In school, his classmates called him Spadino the Italian word for rapier because hed been such a skinny kid.

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mont blanc tunnel fire victims names

mont blanc tunnel fire victims names