It was initiated by a heavy goods vehicle which stopped near the middle of the tunnel and immediately burst into flames. The next thing I realized was that information denied to me in 2003 had come out at trial in France in 2005. On 24 March 1999, a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy. [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 Mont Blanc Tunnel was originally managed by the two building companies. Local motorcyclists still gather once a year, meeting on the Italian side, to pay tribute to the biker known as Spadino. Le tunnel du Mont-Blanc tait en son temps le plus long tunnel routier au monde. 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. Refuges equipped with telephones, and capable of sheltering up to 40 people were excavated every 600 metres in 1991. The driver, who had been alerted to a problem by oncoming vehicles, stopped almost in the middle of the 7.2-mile tunnel. Mr. Tinazzi was most likely the first tunnel employee to realize the Belgian truck was trailing smoke. Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire - Documentary - YouTube [10] The reopening followed an extensive overhaul of the safety features. Anyone can read what you share. The Mont Blanc Tunnel was originally managed by the two building companies. Since then, the combined traffic volume of the former has remained roughly constant. Other name(s): Tunnel du Mont-Blanc: Beginning of works: 1957: Completion: 19 July 1965: Status: in use Project Type. It was an ordinary truck with ordinary cargo: nine tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour. Mont-Blanc tunnel fire: what lessons 24 years later? Home | Mont-Blanc Tunnel | Mont Blanc . It felt like someone I had been married to for years had been cheating on me all along. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. Not your archetypal biker. YouTube isn't a fan of videos regarding "graphic" content. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the Volvo truck without stopping. Fire damage rebuild of Mont Blanc road link - tunneltalk.com I suppose a part of me always worried the story was too good to be true. Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. For each and every one, a non-profit association or event is established. 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. No one could survive downwind, but a small Italian crew was able to get quite close to the fire from the other side. 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 larger trucks were stranded, as they did not have the space to turn around, and reversing out was not an option. The US magazine, ran an abridged version the next year. [3], For several years, Tinazzi was also wrongly credited by newspapers with saving between ten and twelve people by ferrying them to safety on his motorcycle before dying in the fire. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. 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. The region needed a hero, and soon after the fire, the government of Italy honored Mr. Tinazzi with a gold medal for civilian bravery. French highway network. Before they even reached the burning truck, they found themselves in a desperate fight for their own survival. It was more than five days before the tunnel cooled sufficiently to start repairs. 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. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Disaster: Lessons Learned | Harvard Business . 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. greater awareness among users (car and truck drivers) on how to behave in emergency situations. The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. 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. Four years later, in 2003, I was living in France. It has cross-passages every 450 feet so that, in a fire, people can escape through the other tunnel. Within 10 minutes most of the victims were dead, 300m of the tunnel was ablaze, trapping 36 vehicles including 25 lorries. The tunnel opened to traffic on 19 July. 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. Brian Russell, the civil engineer who served as project manager on the S.R. 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 International Motorcycle Federation, the world governing body of motorcycle sport, presented its highest award to his family. The tunnel is 11.611km (7.215mi) in length, 8.6m (28ft) in width, and 4.35m (14.3ft) in height. Its citation, like those early newspaper reports, credited Mr. Tinazzi with saving several people, even though the legend of the biker-hero had been woven by the Italian media before anyone knew exactly what had really happened, said Antoine Chandellier, a French journalist who has reported on the region for decades. Of course my readers are almost all English-speaking motorcyclists who would prefer to believe my original version, anyway. 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. Of the initial fifty people trapped by the fire, twelve survived, all of them from the Italian side. 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. I suppose I sympathize with any editor who chose to downplay a correction, after a devastated region had drawn inspiration from so unlikely a hero. 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. When I pressed him, he fell silent for a moment before saying, My advice is, dont become preoccupied with some accounting of lives saved versus lives lost.. The tunnel, opened with great fanfare in 1965, is seven miles long. [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. An alternative route for road traffic between France to Italy is the Frjus Road Tunnel. Chapter 3 "Lessons learned from recent fires". Plot On 24 March 1999, at 10:30 CET, Nicholas Borghi and John Whitby drive into the tunnel from the Italian side. At 11:39, another team of firefighters entered the tunnel from the French side but were blocked at the garage 5, 4,800 metres from the truck. Its not clear whether he suspected trouble or thought he was making a routine trip back to the Italian portal. On 24th March 1999 a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc tunnel between Italy and France. 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. After a long chat over Skype on technical topics, I asked whether he could confirm Tinazzis actions. 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. In most of these, human negligence is somehow involved. Webcams Account verification Call for Bids. But he never reached it; he stopped when the smoke became too thick. Smoke from the area around the truck's cab was detected by a tunnel smoke 120 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 120 MONT BLANC TUNNEL FIRE Premium High Res Photos Browse 120 MONT BLANC TUNNEL FIRE photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. He appeared to be trying to catch up to the truck that sparked the catastrophe, witnesses said. We learned from Mont Blanc that people dont die from the fire they die from the fumes and smoke, Mr. Hodgkins said. By 11:11, more Italian firefighters had come to tackle the fire. The truth eventually caught up to the legend of a man who rushed in. The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. 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. Searching for Spadino. That always made my day. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. Il a t mis en service en juillet 1965. The tunnel, linking Italy and France, was . . The most notable fire was the 1999 Mount Blanc Tunnel, seven miles long connecting France and Italy, in which 39 persons died. They plunged into increasingly dense smoke and, after the fire melted the tunnels electrical wiring, total darkness. [2] He was also given a special gold medal by the motorcycle sport governing body Fdration Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). These topics are also addressed systematically in thetechnical report 2016 R35 Experience with Significant Incidents in Road Tunnels. And my curiosity finally got the better of me. I tell people, This is like a building for cars.. 120 MONT BLANC TUNNEL FIRE Premium High Res Photos At the time of its construction, it was three times longer than any existing highway tunnel.[2]. and the presence of over 400 people in . (Reuters) Despite the wide coverage it received, the news last week that 11 people had died in two separate incidents just days apart on. Italian highway network. Forty-one people died in the March 24 fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel connecting France with Italy, which burned for two days. 99 Tunnel, said the boring machine was 57 feet in diameter, providing room for spaces for safety systems in addition to the roadways. In the tunnel, the margarine had melted and then turned into a highly flammable vapor. But in recent weeks I have realized, with a creeping feeling of unease, that it was wrong. The fire resulted in million of dollars in damage, thirty-nine deaths, and a three-year closure of the tunnel. 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. Temperatures in the tunnel reached at least 1,832 degrees . In the Mont Blanc tunnel fire in 1999, for example, over 20 lorries were destroyed, and several people lost their lives. He was asked about the security measures that he ordered, or did not order, to be carried out. 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. Other vehicles traveling through the tunnel quickly became trapped and they also caught fire as firefighters were unable to reach the transport truck. Swiss Tunnel Inferno - CBS News Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The tunnel, opened with great fanfare in 1965, is seven miles long. We shall answer you as soon as possible. In Grenoble, France, 16 people and companies were tried on 31 January 2005 for manslaughter. 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. At least 35 people died in the 1,800-degree inferno that erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy . The resulting fire burned for 52 hours and ended 41 lives. The Fdration Internationale de Motocyclisme the worldwide governing body for motorcycle sport posthumously awarded him a specially cast solid gold medal for motorcycle merit. A link between France and Italy, its crossing needs a dozen minutes. Other motorists were overcome by fumes as they tried to run to safety. In fact, hed been offered a job in the tunnel control room, but had declined because he preferred to ride. A Belgian lorry carrying margarine and flour skidded into the tunnel side. 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. 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. Temperatures reached 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. 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. 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. I thought about the tunnel story on and off, usually around the anniversary of the fire. The first thing I realized was that the story I wrote in 2003 had gone viral before going viral was really a thing. + Follow. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is not like any other road tunnel: at 11.6 kilometers long, it was the world's longest road tunnel when it opened for traffic on July 19, 1965. [2] Some victims were able to escape to the fire cubicles. 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. The memorial on the French side honoring the 39 people who died in the tunnel blaze. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. These remote sites are also used as staging areas, to smooth the peaks of commercial traffic. They were eventually rescued via a ventilation duct. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via the French Route Nationale 205 and the Italian Traforo T1 (forming the European route E25), in particular the motorways serving Geneva (A40 of France) and Turin (A5 of Italy). PDF 3 L Essons Learned From Recent Tunnel Fires - Piarc He entered before there was any formal alert. 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! He was, unromantically, driving a Renault Express minivan. The agreement between France and Italy on building a tunnel was signed in 1949. Other victims were found in "sealed" safety refuges, built eight years ago. ICYMI:A reporter asked for 20 years of lottery winner data. It held that title. In 2010, the average traffic volume was 4,945 vehicles per day, or around 1.80 million vehicles per year. 35 DEAD IN EUROPE TUNNEL FIRE. On 24th March, 1999, the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred, with Tinazzi riding into the tunnel in an attempt to save lives on the French side. 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. It so shocked civil engineers who specialize in tunnel construction that many remember where they were when they learned the news. by red crosses) or closing of the tunnel (by traffic lights), are often neglected if not enforced by additional means (eg. THE 2001 GOTTHARD ROAD TUNNEL FIRE - Transportation Research Board But all the witnesses and officials were under gag orders, and records including security video and recordings of radio traffic were sealed due to ongoing criminal and civil investigations. Large-scale generation and characterisation of fire effluents. I thought about the tunnel story on and off, usually around the anniversary of the fire. 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). These security measures were taken as a consequence of the 1999 tunnel fire. The lessons learnt are summarised in Table 3.5 of this report. March 24, 1999 - Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire - This Day in Automotive History The refuge had a fire door rated to a four-hour standard. 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. 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. PDF Overview on the traffic situation in European tunnels - Ditzingen Some had been upgraded in the thirty-four years since construction of the Mont Blanc Tunnel to survive for four hours. Had he really forgotten, I wondered, or was there something he didnt want to tell me? The magnitude of death and destruction reverberated widely. But I never really dug back into it. In less than two hours, the tunnel was reopened to traffic. The October 2001 fire caused 11 unnecessary fatalities. It passes almost directly under Europes highest peak. 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. 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. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The driver stopped, about three miles from daylight in both directions, and with a mile of solid rock above him. Updates? The Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire | A Short Documentary - YouTube Shortly after, the driver realized something was wrong as cars coming in the opposite direction flashed their headlights at him; a glance in his mirrors showed white smoke coming out from under his cabin. 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. Mont Blanc Tunnel, major Alpine automotive tunnel connecting France and Italy. By. 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. But Id taken pride in this story for so long. Reporters described him making four trips into the tunnel, ferrying people out on his motorcycle. The tunnel consists of a single gallery with a two-lane dual direction road. The tunnel operator, Mont Blanc Tunnel and Highway, said about 20 tractor-trailer trucks and 11 cars were destroyed in the blaze. At this point, there were at least 10 cars and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. Some of the cars from the French side managed to turn around in the narrow two-lane tunnel to retreat back to France, but navigating the road in the dense smoke that had rapidly filled the tunnel quickly made this impossible. 39 people were killed. 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 . On 24th March, 1999, a Volvo lorry travelling from France to Italy stopped and burst into flames midway through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. 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. In the chaos just after the blaze, local French and Italian newspapers reported that the biker had raced in and out of the burning tunnel, saving as many as 10 people before dying in one last rescue attempt. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. And my curiosity finally got the better of me. Most of the victims had almost certainly suffocated before they burned. but more importantly the blaze made operators and designers of other tunnels re-examine fire risks. Spadino Pierlucio Tinazzi, who got his nickname, Italian for a thin, light sword, when he was young was just outside the French portal on his motorcycle. 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. After a long chat over Skype on technical topics, I asked whether he could confirm Tinazzis actions. Direction Italy - France. The Mont Blanc tunnel fire March 1999 killed 39 persons, of which most died within 15 min due to intoxication. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}455358N 65151E / 45.8995N 6.8642E / 45.8995; 6.8642. 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. Within a minute or two, it caught fire. As the trucks cargo burned, it produced dense, toxic smoke that billowed back towards France. [13] In 2016, the one-way ticket for a car cost 43.50 (44.20 on the Italian side). When built, it was the world's longest road tunnel, linking the French and Italian highway systems and shortening truck routes between. It was a once-in-a-lifetime piece. It measures 11.6 kilometers (7.2miles) in length, two-thirds of which lies in France. Sixteen accused of manslaughter in Mont Blanc inferno Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. douard Balladur, former president of the French company operating the tunnel (from 1968 to 1980), and later Prime Minister of France, underwent a witness examination. 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]. a more efficient organisation of operational and emergency services (harmonised, safer and more efficient emergency procedures, specifically for cross-border operation). Today in Fire History 3/24 - LinkedIn Called the Mont Blanc Vehicular Tunnel, the stretch opened 12 years later. A spokesman for the. When it was realized that the cubicles were offering little protection from the smoke, they began searching for the doors that led to the ventilation duct. research, I spoke to Jean-Marc Berthier, the engineer who reopened the Mont Blanc Tunnel after extensive renovations and safety improvements. Unfortunately, he failed to return from his final visit into the tunnel and himself became a victim of the tragic inferno. The fire spread over 34 vehicles and was finally extinguished after 53 hours. 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. By 11:30, 37 minutes after start of the fire, smoke had reached the French entrance of the tunnel, 6 kilometres from the truck. Spadino redux: What if the best story you ever wrote was wrong The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. The toxic effects of the fire product are important in the second and third phase. ICYMI:WSJreporter explains why he was fired, Fdration Internationale de Motocyclisme. 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. 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 passageway is not horizontal, but in a slightly inverted "V", which assists ventilation. The 16 defendants include individuals and companies. The Volvo trundled in, on its way to Italy. Some vehicles were still burning yesterday morning; others had been buried by rubble from the collapsed lining of the tunnel. 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 . But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly. 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. Technical report 05.16B Systems and equipment for fire and smoke control in road tunnels. March 20, 2023 by archyde. The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. So you can imagine why newspapers and magazines are not interested in revising [the] account.. Family members of the victims of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel accident walk Italian firefighters finally reached the epicentre of the blaze yesterday, 48 hours later.