Chunnel Fire in Freight tunnel

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Chunnel Vision topic

I was just watching CNN and saw this. Terrible on this day, seven years after 9/11.

The fire was in a freight train car. No passengers injured, but the tunnel will have to be closed for 24 hours for an investigation.

This is always now a high alert day. Link

Apparently, the structure of Channel Tunnel is exceedingly strong. I have never been to Europe, though I would like to go and see this amazing feat of civil engineering.

There have been major train/load fires in the Channel Tunnel before, one took several weeks to repair the tunnel's lining.

Mike

I just saw on the 10pm BBC News, the fire is still burning (now for 7 hours). The last time it burned for so long, 500 meters of tunnel and track was to badly damaged it took 6 months to repair. There is no chance it will open tomorrow.

There are now 50-70 firefighters trying to put out the fire, in terrible conditions. The disturbing thing is, they are not trying to save lives, everyone was evacuated so no one is in danger. The only thing at risk is the profit of the Company running the Chunnel, so I hope no firefighter is injured or looses his life while fighting this fire.

Here is a link explaining the last major fire in 1996:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel_fire

Fire has always been the big safety worry regarding tunnels, the second being asphyxiation due to poor or failed ventilation. For example, MANY highway tunnels in the USA are prohibited to 'hazmat' loads - some even prohibit smaller sized cans of compressed propane (as used in, for example, recreational vehicle heaters, grills, plumbers' soldering torches, etc).

Mike