The memorial on the French side honoring the 39 people who died in the tunnel blaze. Although hed lived in the close-knit Val dAosta region since birth, all most people knew about him was that he loved motorcycles, and rode at every opportunity. I set out to write a biographical sketch of an unlikely hero. It had been open nearly 35 years without a single fatal incident until the morning of March 24, 1999. It has cross-passages every 450 feet so that, in a fire, people can escape through the other tunnel. Mont Blanc Tunnel re -opens 3 years after tragic fire in Chamonix, France on March 09, 2002. At the time, considering that four years had already gone by since the fire, I concluded that French and Italian bureaucrats were deliberately dragging the investigation out, to keep the records sealed, so that neither side would ever have to accept blame. He was a mild-mannered introvert who loved gardening; occasionally he distributed a bumper crop of vegetables to other workers at the tunnel. Pierlucio Tinazzi 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. 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.
[1] A commemorative plaque at the Italian entrance honours his sacrifice. The refuge had a fire door rated to a four-hour standard. By 11:30, 37 minutes after start of the fire, smoke had reached the French entrance of the tunnel, 6 kilometres from the truck. Only vehicles past the fire on the French side of the tunnel were trapped, while cars on the Italian side of the fire were mostly unaffected. The regional newspapers that reported on him in 1999 didnt have online editions; my story, posted a few years later, was the first on the web. In 2013, the one-way ticket for a car was 40.90 (41.40 on the Italian side), while the return ticket, valid for 7 days, was 51 (51.60 on the Italian side). So there was a motorcycle guy who died in the fire, and a motorcycle guy who rescued several people; they just werent the same person. I was not alone in making Spadino a hero. [4] Renovations include computerized detection equipment, extra security bays, a parallel escape shaft and a fire station in the middle of the tunnel complete with double-cabbed fire trucks. [9], This led to a three-year tunnel closure until 9 March 2002.
Today in Fire History 3/24 - LinkedIn 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. by red crosses) or closing of the tunnel (by traffic lights), are often neglected if not enforced by additional means (eg. Other victims were found in "sealed" safety refuges, built eight years ago. In the Mont Blanc tunnel fire in 1999, for example, over 20 lorries were destroyed, and several people lost their lives. The most notable fire was the 1999 Mount Blanc Tunnel, seven miles long connecting France and Italy, in which 39 persons died. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mont-Blanc-Tunnel, British Broadcasting Corporation - Mont Blanc tunnel. Most of the victims had almost certainly suffocated before they burned. Under the Mont Blancmountain range is a 11,6 km(around 7.2 miles) long road tunnel, connecting Francewith Italy. [5] In 1962, the French and Italian drilling teams met on 4 August. This motorcycle, scooter or moped-related article is a stub. For each and every one, a non-profit association or event is established. Part of his job involved riding back and forth through the tunnel on his motorcycle to keep traffic flowing, dispatching tow trucks and providing motorist assistance as needed. All of the firefighters were rescued five hours later by a third fire crew that responded and reached them via a ventilation duct; of the 15 firefighters who had been trapped, 14 were in serious condition and one (their commanding officer) later died in the hospital. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. 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. Unfortunately, he failed to return from his final visit into the tunnel and himself became a victim of the tragic inferno. The larger trucks were stranded, as they did not have the space to turn around, and reversing out was not an option. 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 French company ATMB and the Italian company SITMB each independently manage and control one half of the tunnel.
Pierlucio Tinazzi was employed as a security guard to patrol the tunnel by motorcycle to ensure a steady flow of traffic. He entered before there was any formal alert. French police announced last night that as many as 40 trucks and cars may have been engulfed by the fire, making it probably the worst road tunnel accident in history. On March 24, 1999, the fire began close to the center of the 7.2-mile tunnel. 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. In a subsequent email exchange, Jean-Marc Berthier pointed out that Spadino was not trained or equipped to fight a fire. Many difficulties, including an avalanche that swept the Italian camp in which three workers were killed and more than 30 injured, were overcome during its construction, and, when the tunnel opened in 1965, it was the longest vehicular tunnel in the world. Around 11 a.m., a Volvo FH12 tractor-trailer, registered in Belgium, stopped to pay the toll. And my curiosity finally got the better of me. Please join the Patreon to keep the channel. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. 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. A group of French firefighters took refuge in one of the new safety zones but one of them died of a heart attack. 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.
Spadino redux: What if the best story you ever wrote was wrong Family members of the victims of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel accident walk Following a fire in 1999 in which 39 people died, which showed how lack of coordination could hamper the safety of the tunnel, all the operations are managed by a single entity: MBT-EEIG, controlled by both ATMB and SITMB together, through a 50-50 shares distribution. Since then, Mr. Berthier has become a global evangelist for tunnel fire safety. 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. Their commanding officer died at a nearby hospital. Corrections? The tunnel, opened with great fanfare in 1965, is seven miles long. Its not clear whether he suspected trouble or thought he was making a routine trip back to the Italian portal. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. On 24 March 1999, a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy. 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. 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. March 27, 1999 5:00am. On the fifth trip, he came across a French truck driver named Maurice Lebras, who was alive but unconscious, according to messages Tinazzi communicated via a tunnel intercom. He looks in his rear view mirror: his cargo of margarine and flour has caught fire. In 2011, there were an average of 5,113 vehicles per day (about 1.87 million vehicles per year). The driver, who had been alerted to a problem by oncoming vehicles, stopped almost in the middle of the 7.2-mile tunnel. Fourteen firefighters on two trucks from the ski resort of Chamonix reached the French portal in minutes. The blaze was traumatic for the close-knit Alpine communities of the French Haute-Savoie region and Val dAosta in Italy. 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. The narrow tunnel turned into a furnace. but more importantly the blaze made operators and designers of other tunnels re-examine fire risks. In Italy, he says, We have a disaster or a deadly happening involving several people every week. He appeared to be in his 50s at the time of the fire, so its not certain hes still alive. The lessons learnt are summarised in Table 3.5 of this report. Otherwise it was conventionally driven from two headings, the Italian and French crews beginning work in 1958 and 1959, respectively, and meeting in August 1962. This page was last edited on 19 April 2023, at 12:22. 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. Moments later, the fire melted the wiring for the lights, plunging the tunnel into darkness. But he died trying to do so, and local bikers still gather at the tunnel mouth once a year to honor him. The fire refuges were greatly improved in the extensive renovation that followed the 1999 fire.
Mont Blanc Tunnel Map - Tunnel - France - Mapcarta Before Mont Blanc, tunnel engineers were divided on the benefit of sprinkler systems. 99 Tunnel. Other name(s): Tunnel du Mont-Blanc: Beginning of works: 1957: Completion: 19 July 1965: Status: in use Project Type.
Tunnel Safety 20 Years after the Mont Blanc Fire - LinkedIn YouTube isn't a fan of videos regarding "graphic" content. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became .
I wrote a story that became a legend. Then I discovered it wasn't true. 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. 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 when the payload violently combusted. "Inside the vehicles, you can see skeletons and human remains but it is impossible to say how many," an Italian official said. It was more than five days before the tunnel cooled sufficiently to start repairs. That tunnel blaze killed 39 people. In 2003, with what felt like an angel on my shoulder, I wrote a story that became a myth. [13] In 2016, the one-way ticket for a car cost 43.50 (44.20 on the Italian side). Create your free account to access the additional media materials and receive alerts when new contents are published. Mont Blanc Tunnel is a tunnel and road tunnel that was built from 1957 until 1965. The second, Into the Flames Fire Underground (aired 2006), revisited the circumstances and showed how new technology in the form of a new type of fire extinguisher could have reduced the scale of the disaster and enabled the fire service to reach and remain in the vicinity to fight the fire. Halifax explosion, also called Halifax explosion of 1917 or the Great Halifax Explosion, devastating explosion on December 6, 1917, that occurred when a munitions ship blew up in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I suppose a part of me always worried the story was too good to be true.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Tunnel fire trial opens in France The passageway is not horizontal, but in a slightly inverted "V", which assists ventilation. Concerns included impaired visibility for motorists as well as reliability and maintenance costs. Tinazzi was on the French side of the tunnel, from where he donned breathing equipment and drove into the tunnel on his BMW K75 motorcycle in an attempt to save people trapped in the tunnel; after finding unconscious truck driver Maurice Lebras, who was too heavy to be loaded on his motorcycle, he dragged him to a refuge station in the tunnel, where both were killed by smoke or flames. I contacted Paolo Sormani, an experienced Italian motorcycle writer, and asked him to help with that accounting. Paolo wrote back, rather brusquely I thought, saying that he had no interest in reopening the Spadino story. By then tales of Tinazzis bravery had already spread far and wide.
FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/24 - Firefighter Close Calls When the Mont Blanc tunnel was built in 1965, the transalpine crossing was considered . [2] Degrave subsequently abandoned his vehicle and ran to the Italian entrance of the tunnel. [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 tunnel consists of a single gallery with a two-lane dual direction road. Remy Chardon, former president of the French company operating the tunnel, was convicted and received a two-year suspended jail term; he was also fined approximately. But I still wondered how so many journalists, beginning with the local papers, and ending with myself, got the facts so wrong. 40 deaths 35 DEAD IN EUROPE TUNNEL FIRE. . In 2010, the average traffic volume was 4,945 vehicles per day, or around 1.80 million vehicles per year. Without other possibilities, they abandoned their vehicles and took refuge in two of the emergency fire cubicles (fire-door sealed small rooms set into the walls every 600 metres). Their trucks stuck now, the firefighters retreated into two refuges.
The Mont Blanc Tunnel Disaster: Lessons Learned | Harvard Business PDF 3 L Essons Learned From Recent Tunnel Fires - Piarc While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire Extinguished; Toll at 35 That same year, the STMB (Socit du tunnel du Mont Blanc) was formed, which became ATMB (Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc) in 1996. March 24, 1999, 10:54 a.m.: a Belgian truck driver rushes into the Mont-Blanc tunnel, but very quickly, cars flash his headlights.