World

Fire in channel tunnel caused serious damage

by amyjudd | September 13, 2008 at 06:19 pm | 216 views | 2 comments | 14 recommendations

The Channel Tunnel, which reopened yesterday after a fire, has now been reported to have reached temperatures of 1,800 degrees.

The fire, which broke out on Thursday on a France-bound freight shuttle train carrying trucks, may have started on one of the trucks, safety officials said. The fire was not extinguished until Friday, said Mady Chabrier, a spokeswoman for the operator, Eurotunnel.

The closing raised new questions about how such incidents could occur, especially after previous fires in the tunnel. The fire threatened 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.

Reports on Thursday afternoon suggested that damage and disruption were not heavy. But by Friday morning, officials said it had taken firefighters most of the night to douse the flames, and a truck driver told French news media that he and others had narrowly escaped.

"Because it's a tunnel, it works like an oven," Chabrier said. "I guess the concrete has suffered and the iron inside of the tunnel, and we have to check now what the situation is."

32 passengers were on the train at the time, and six people were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. No serious injuries were reported.
The fire seems to have been accidental, but the exact cause will be under investigation.
This was the longest time the tunnel has been closed since 1996.