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On this day, March 24, 1999, the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire started.
Last edited Fri Mar 24, 2023, 06:47 AM - Edit history (1)
WHEELS
A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for All
Two decades ago, 39 people died inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel in a fire so horrific it changed safety standards forever. The truth eventually caught up to the legend of a man who rushed in.
The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. 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. Samuel Zeller for The New York Times
By Mark Gardiner
March 21, 2019
Twenty years ago Sunday, a fire deep inside an Alpine tunnel killed 39 people and turned a motorcycle-riding security guard who worked there into a hero. 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. ... It was some time before investigators released a final, accurate account of the disaster at the Mont Blanc Tunnel: The biker, who was known by his nickname, Spadino, an Italian riff on his skinny frame, had not saved anyone. But he died trying to do so, and local bikers still gather at the tunnel mouth once a year to honor him.
While the legend was exaggerated, the horror of the fire — and its impact on tunnel safety — cannot be overstated. The lessons of the tragedy have guided tunnel design and engineering ever since, including recent American projects like the Port of Miami Tunnel and Seattle’s new S.R. 99 Tunnel.
Temperatures reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, and it took a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to reach the bodies. Associated Press
The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. When built, it was the world’s longest road tunnel, linking the French and Italian highway systems and shortening truck routes between Italy’s industrial north and other parts of Europe. It had been open nearly 35 years without a single fatal incident until the morning of March 24, 1999.
[Read the original Times coverage of the 1999 fire at the Mont Blanc Tunnel.]
Around 11 a.m., a Volvo FH12 tractor-trailer, registered in Belgium, stopped to pay the toll. It was an ordinary truck with ordinary cargo: nine tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour. ... To this day, no one can say with certainty why the rig caught fire. The driver, who had been alerted to a problem by oncoming vehicles, stopped almost in the middle of the 7.2-mile tunnel. When he climbed out of the cab, flames burst from under the truck, and he leapt back. Witnesses reported that the fire had very quickly become too intense to drive past.
{snip}
A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for All
Two decades ago, 39 people died inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel in a fire so horrific it changed safety standards forever. The truth eventually caught up to the legend of a man who rushed in.
The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. 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. Samuel Zeller for The New York Times
By Mark Gardiner
March 21, 2019
Twenty years ago Sunday, a fire deep inside an Alpine tunnel killed 39 people and turned a motorcycle-riding security guard who worked there into a hero. 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. ... It was some time before investigators released a final, accurate account of the disaster at the Mont Blanc Tunnel: The biker, who was known by his nickname, Spadino, an Italian riff on his skinny frame, had not saved anyone. But he died trying to do so, and local bikers still gather at the tunnel mouth once a year to honor him.
While the legend was exaggerated, the horror of the fire — and its impact on tunnel safety — cannot be overstated. The lessons of the tragedy have guided tunnel design and engineering ever since, including recent American projects like the Port of Miami Tunnel and Seattle’s new S.R. 99 Tunnel.
Temperatures reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, and it took a week before the tunnel cooled enough for forensic investigators to reach the bodies. Associated Press
The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. When built, it was the world’s longest road tunnel, linking the French and Italian highway systems and shortening truck routes between Italy’s industrial north and other parts of Europe. It had been open nearly 35 years without a single fatal incident until the morning of March 24, 1999.
[Read the original Times coverage of the 1999 fire at the Mont Blanc Tunnel.]
Around 11 a.m., a Volvo FH12 tractor-trailer, registered in Belgium, stopped to pay the toll. It was an ordinary truck with ordinary cargo: nine tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour. ... To this day, no one can say with certainty why the rig caught fire. The driver, who had been alerted to a problem by oncoming vehicles, stopped almost in the middle of the 7.2-mile tunnel. When he climbed out of the cab, flames burst from under the truck, and he leapt back. Witnesses reported that the fire had very quickly become too intense to drive past.
{snip}
Wed Mar 24, 2021: On this day, March 24, 1999, and March 24, 2015, bad things happened in the French Alps.
A local channel airs several episodes of "Engineering Disasters" in a row on Sunday afternoons. When I heard that one of them would go into a fire in a tunnel, I thought it was this one they were talking about. It wasn't. The tunnel fire in the TV show was the 2001 fire in the Gotthard Road Tunnel.
Mont Blanc tunnel fire
Date: 24 March 1999
Venue: Mont Blanc Tunnel
Location: Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France
Coordinates: 45.8995°N 6.8642°E
Deaths: 39
Non-fatal injuries: 14
The Mont Blanc tunnel fire occurred on 24 March 1999. It was caused by a transport truck which caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became trapped and fire crews were unable to reach the transport truck. Thirty-nine people were killed. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety.
{snip}
Fire
On the morning of 24 March 1999, 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine entered the French-side portal and caught fire in the tunnel.
Truck came to the toll at 10:46 CET. Initial journey through tunnel was routine. Around 10:49 fire started and smoke first appeared. 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. This was not yet a fire emergency; there had been 16 other truck fires in the tunnel over the previous 35 years, always extinguished on the spot by the drivers.
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 by flames from his cabin. With Degrave unable to fight the fire, he was forced to flee and to abandon the truck.
At 10:55, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. At this point there were at least 10 cars and vans and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the Volvo truck without stopping. 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, as between 10:53 and 10:57 smoke had already covered half a kilometer of the French side. The larger trucks did not have the space to turn around, and reversing out was not an option.
Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. These fumes quickly filled the tunnel and caused vehicle engines to stall because of lack of oxygen. This included fire engines which, once affected, had to be abandoned by the firefighters. Many drivers near the blaze who attempted to leave their cars and seek refuge points were quickly overcome due to toxic components of the smoke, mainly cyanide.
{snip}
Date: 24 March 1999
Venue: Mont Blanc Tunnel
Location: Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France
Coordinates: 45.8995°N 6.8642°E
Deaths: 39
Non-fatal injuries: 14
The Mont Blanc tunnel fire occurred on 24 March 1999. It was caused by a transport truck which caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became trapped and fire crews were unable to reach the transport truck. Thirty-nine people were killed. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety.
{snip}
Fire
On the morning of 24 March 1999, 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine entered the French-side portal and caught fire in the tunnel.
Truck came to the toll at 10:46 CET. Initial journey through tunnel was routine. Around 10:49 fire started and smoke first appeared. 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. This was not yet a fire emergency; there had been 16 other truck fires in the tunnel over the previous 35 years, always extinguished on the spot by the drivers.
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 by flames from his cabin. With Degrave unable to fight the fire, he was forced to flee and to abandon the truck.
At 10:55, the tunnel employees triggered the fire alarm and stopped any further traffic from entering. At this point there were at least 10 cars and vans and 18 trucks in the tunnel that had entered from the French side. A few vehicles from the Italian side passed the Volvo truck without stopping. 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, as between 10:53 and 10:57 smoke had already covered half a kilometer of the French side. The larger trucks did not have the space to turn around, and reversing out was not an option.
Most drivers rolled up their windows and waited for rescue. The ventilation system in the tunnel drove toxic smoke back down the tunnel faster than anyone could run to safety. These fumes quickly filled the tunnel and caused vehicle engines to stall because of lack of oxygen. This included fire engines which, once affected, had to be abandoned by the firefighters. Many drivers near the blaze who attempted to leave their cars and seek refuge points were quickly overcome due to toxic components of the smoke, mainly cyanide.
{snip}
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