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I traveled to Val dAosta on my own dime to write a story that I eventually came to call Searching for Spadino.. This had forced Italian firefighters to retreat, and they rescued 12 people from Italian side. An honor guard filled the tiny cemetery where he was buried. He had been devastated when his wife, who hated the alpine winters, left him and returned to her native Puglia in the far south. It was more than five days before the tunnel cooled sufficiently to start repairs. 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. At the time of its construction, it was three times longer than any existing highway tunnel.[2]. By 11:11, more Italian firefighters had come to tackle the fire. When built, it was the world's longest road tunnel, linking the French and Italian highway systems and shortening truck routes between. Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire Extinguished; Toll at 35 what happens if you snitch on the cartel but more importantly the blaze made operators and designers of other tunnels re-examine fire risks. The Fire in the Mont-Blanc Tunnel on 24th March, 1999 The Mont Blanc tunnel was opened on 16th July, 1965. Le tunnel du Mont-Blanc tait en son temps le plus long tunnel routier au monde. Il a t mis en service en juillet 1965. [8], On the morning of 24 March 1999, the engine of a Belgian transport truck carrying volatile freight caught fire in the tunnel. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. 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. As I write this, Ive spent the last week going back over 76 pages of handwritten notes I made on that trip. Other vehicles traveling through the tunnel became trapped and firefighters were unable to reach the transport truck. Mont Blanc Tunnel fire - Wikipedia French highway network. In death, hed become an unofficial patron saint of Italian bikers. 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. Temperatures reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, and it took a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to reach the bodies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? 677 Mont Blanc Tunnel Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images Mont Blanc Tunnel Toll Prices - Get from France to Italy - Chamonix . A remote site for cargo safety inspection was created on each side: Aosta in Italy and Passy-Le Fayet in France. 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.. 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. 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. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. The fire resulted in million of dollars in damage, thirty-nine deaths, and a three-year closure of the tunnel. In the Mont-Blanc fire in March 1999, the asphalt road . [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. But he died trying to do so, and local bikers still gather at the tunnel mouth once a year to honor him. The tunnel underwent major changes in the three years it remained closed after the fire. We shall answer you as soon as possible. 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. 20-trip package: 228.60; Valid for 2 years in addition to the validation month. He found Maurice Lebras unconscious, and dragged him into Niche No. The truth eventually caught up to the legend of a man who rushed in. Pierlucio Tinazzi - Wikipedia The system proved utterly incapable of pumping in cold air or removing the thick fumes from the burning margarine and flour and the loads of the other blazing trucks, including, it is believed, a tanker containing chlorine. Swiss Tunnel Inferno - CBS News Some vehicles were still burning yesterday morning; others had been buried by rubble from the collapsed lining of the tunnel. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. the worldwide governing body for motorcycle sport posthumously awarded him a specially cast solid gold medal for motorcycle merit. Hence a systematic analysis of less severe, but more frequent incidents (collisions and fires) may provide a more representative picutre of real tunnel incidents. On that day, atmospheric conditions in the Alps created a fairly strong breeze in the tunnel. Brian Russell, the civil engineer who served as project manager on the S.R. The Mont-Blanc Tunnel, promoter of safety at international level Mont Blanc and its valleys Territory and open air A cultural crossroads Partnerships History Unitary tunnel management Corporate structure Women and men Important projects and works Details (suppliers, calls for bids, tenders and contracts) Traffic statistics Financial data News Tunnel Fire - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics Nicholas Borghi is a skier, heading from his home in Italy to ski resorts in France. They were eventually rescued via a ventilation duct. [Read the original Times coverage of the 1999 fire at the Mont Blanc Tunnel.]. 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. Fires in long traffic tunnels are rare. 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. He never quite got there. 20. P. Blomqvist, M. Simonson-McNamee, in Fire Toxicity, 2010 Simulated vehicle fire in road tunnel. The last few drivers who made it into France said the motorcyclist had appeared to be trying to catch up to the burning truck. That same year, the STMB (Socit du tunnel du Mont Blanc) was formed, which became ATMB (Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc) in 1996. They plunged into thick, toxic smoke. Temperatures reached 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. He had been presented with medals and buried with honors long before I arrived in Val dAosta. But Id taken pride in this story for so long. . The Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy experienced a widely publicized fire disaster in March 1999, when a truck traveling through the 11,6 km long tunnel burst into flames 6 km into the structure. Tunnel fire safety experts get sprinkler religion | phcppros At 10:54, one of the drivers called from refuge 22 to raise the alarm. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. The fire refuges were greatly improved in the extensive renovation that followed the 1999 fire. Jean-Marc, who until that point in our conversation had easily recalled facts and anecdotes, told me he couldnt remember the details. I was not alone in making Spadino a hero. Thats the one magazine every other motorcycle editor reads, and so several more ran it in translation. On 24 March 1999 a dramatic fire occurred in the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became . The US magazine, ran an abridged version the next year. There were 29 deaths of people trapped inside of vehicles, and nine more died trying to escape on foot. The safe havens were designed to protect motorists from a fire for only two hours. This page was last edited on 19 April 2023, at 12:22. At 10:55, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. Before they even reached the burning truck, they found themselves in a desperate fight for their own survival. Mont Blanc Tunnel Tolls on the Italian side from 1 January 2022 (22% VAT included), Mont Blanc Tunnel Tolls on the French side from 1 January 2022 (20% VAT included), Agreement between France and Italy and start of construction by 1959, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "World's longest auto tunnel to pierce the Alps", "A French-Italian Operator - Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc", "Our work on the Mont Blanc Tunnel - ATMB", "The Fire of 1999 - Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc", "The security features of the Mont Blanc Tunnel | DW | 17 July 2015", "A5 Mont Blanc-Aosta Motorway - Courmayeur- Morgex Section Lot No 2 - Salini Impregilo", "Mont Blanc Tunnel Toll Prices - Get from France to Italy", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mont_Blanc_Tunnel&oldid=1149625412, Workforce: five engineers and 350 workmen worked an estimated grand total of 4.6 million man-hours to complete the project, Explosives: 711 tonnes (700 long tons; 784 short tons) of explosives were used to blast 555,000m, Other facts: 771,240 bolts, 6,900 drill rods, and 300 tonnes (300 long tons; 330 short tons) of iron were used to support the, This page was last edited on 13 April 2023, at 11:48. The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. 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. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety. As the trucks cargo burned, it produced dense, toxic smoke that billowed back towards France. 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.. (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.). Technical report 05.05B Fire and smoke control in road tunnels. 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. Its not clear whether he suspected trouble or thought he was making a routine trip back to the Italian portal. 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. 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. Mont-Blanc tunnel fire: what lessons 24 years later? - Archyde Home | Mont-Blanc Tunnel | Mont Blanc All of them survived but their commanding officer, who died in a hospital. Due to weather conditions at the time, airflow through the tunnel was from the Italian side to the French side. Maybe like Italian motorcycle magazines, the newspapers quietly started telling the truth about him, without ever admitting the initial error. I set out to write a biographical sketch of an unlikely hero. [1] Drilling began in 1959 and was completed in 1962; the tunnel was opened to traffic on 19 July 1965. 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. So you can imagine why newspapers and magazines are not interested in revising [the] account.. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. 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. 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. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly. Searching for Spadino wrong, but lacking real evidence. An investigation found no evidence of a design fault with the truck. [1] Tinazzi's and Devouassoux's actions were apparently intermingled in subsequent press accounts.[1]. The resulting fire burned for 52 hours and ended 41 lives. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. Over the years, there have been a few occasions when complete strangers thanked me for writing. The opening was successful, with an axis variation of less than 13 centimetres (5 inches). The data base used for the calculations are enclosed in Appendix 3 (collisions) and Appendix 4 (fires) respectively. Five hours later and with no time to spare, a rescue crew reached the firemen via a ventilation duct. 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! The blaze was traumatic for the close-knit Alpine communities of the French Haute-Savoie region and Val dAosta in Italy. 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.
