A fire broke out in the Channel tunnel on 11th September in the afternoon on board a Eurotunnel shuttle train carrying trucks through the north running, France-bound tunnel. The fire, which took some 20 hours to extinguish, was detected 11 kilometres from France. Two hundred French and 100 British firefighters - wearing breathing apparatus to protect them from the thick, black smoke - worked in cramped conditions as the fire reached temperatures as high as 1,000°C. The blaze was finally extinguished after hundreds of firefighters fought throughout the night to bring it under control. At the height of the blaze, they had to work in shifts of 15 minutes at a time because of conditions inside the tunnel. The blaze was declared extinguished around midday on Friday 12th September.
A total of 32 drivers along with about 18 other people who were on the shuttle were evacuated into the central service tunnel. Six were hospitalised after inhaling the fumes. The blaze, which was put out on Friday 12th September in the morning, ended up incinerating 26 rail trucks.
French officials said the fire was accidental. The source of the blaze has not yet been identified but they said a lorry carrying chemicals, which is understood to have overturned on the freight train, was close to the seat of the fire. It was carrying the chemical phenol, a toxic product used by the pharmaceutical industry.
The tunnel’s closure caused transport chaos on both sides of the Channel, leaving thousands of rail passengers, motorists and truck drivers stranded and lorries backed up for hours from Dover and Calais. Heavy goods vehicles began to queue on the M20 motorway in Britain. Five Eurostar trains with 2,000 passengers on board were using the High Speed 1 route when the fire broke out. No trains were stuck in the tunnel and all returned safely to stations in England and France.
Damage caused by the fire could take up to six months to repair, Gérard Gavory, who works for the French Ministry of the Interior, has revealed on Sunday. He told that the blaze was “much worse” than a serious fire in 1996. It has caused “very big damage to the structure” of the north tunnel, he said. If the tunnel does not fully re-open until March 2009, motorists and rail passengers could face months of delays following the fire.
The north tunnel is expected to remain closed for several weeks while the French authorities investigate the fire, assess the damage and undertake any works required to return it to service. The French ground transportation accident investigation bureau (BEATT by its French acronym) was taking the lead in the investigation into the fire, although the Kent fire and rescue service will be supporting the inquiry.
Eurostar has been able to run an emergency timetable over the weekend with a skeleton service operating through the south tunnel. In total, up to 116 services carrying people or freight were expected to make the crossing in either direction on Sunday 14th September.
Monday's Eurostar services are expected to take at least 30 minutes longer than timetabled with the Channel tunnel operating at approximately a third of its usual service capacity. A total of between 120 and 140 trains carrying Eurostar passengers, vehicles or freight trucks, will make their way through the tunnel daily as of Monday, compared to the normal daily average of between 300 and 400. Traffic in both directions between England and France will use the south tunnel only, which has re-opened to all four services which use the tunnel. There will be continuing alterations to the timetable, as Eurostar adjusts its services to manage high levels of demand and the reduced tunnel capacity. Travellers will have to expect a much-longer period spent waiting to get through check-in.
The closing raised new questions about how such incidents could occur, especially after previous fires in the tunnel in 1996 and 2006 linked to goods vehicles on board Eurotunnel trains. In November 1996, another blaze caused damage to the tunnel lining and halted freight traffic for seven months. This new fire threatens to disrupt services for several weeks in the tunnel, which is used by truckers as well as by tens of thousands of tourists and business people every day. The latest incident has prompted calls for greater controls over the vehicles and payloads carried through the tunnel.
The Channel tunnel opened on 6th May, 1994. It runs from Folkestone, Britain to Coquelles, France. It is 50.5 km long and is the second longest undersea tunnel in the world. It consists of two mainline tunnels and one service tunnel.
While a popular success, the tunnel has flirted with financial disaster. Eurotunnel, the Anglo-French Channel tunnel operator, was heavily burdened by debt before reaching a restructuring deal last year. It announced in April its first ever profit for the 12 months to 31st December 2007. Eurotunnel says the financial impact of the fire will be limited and that its operational losses are covered by insurance. Visit www.eurotunnel.com 38/08.
