Devouassoux was not riding a motorcycle that day. The October 2001 fire caused 11 unnecessary fatalities. The director of the tunnel company, Remi Chardon, said earlier that at least 17 and up to 30 people were feared to have died. Do not hesitate to send us your comments, questions and suggestions. March 24, 1999, 10:54 a.m.: a Belgian truck driver rushes into the Mont-Blanc tunnel, but very quickly, cars flash his headlights. Initially, there was a lot of conjecture, and uneasiness, about how a fire of that size could become so deadly and produce so much damage, Mr. Connell said. In the tunnel, the margarine had melted and then turned into a highly flammable vapor. [1] Tinazzi was in radio contact with the Italian side for over an hour before succumbing to the intense heat, which caused his motorcycle to melt into the pavement. Members of a direct response crew in the firefighter hangar on the French side. 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. [5] In 1908, a first design was presented by French engineer Arnold Monod, to much interest from Italian and French politicians. And my curiosity finally got the better of me. Around 11 a.m., a Volvo FH12 tractor-trailer, registered in Belgium, stopped to pay the toll. The Mont Blanc Tunnel | SeeChamonix.com Jean-Marc, who until that point in our conversation had easily recalled facts and anecdotes, told me he couldnt remember the details. On 3/24/1999 the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred when a truck carrying 12 tons of flour and 9 tons of margarine entered the French side of the 7.2-mile tunnel connecting France and Italy in the Alps. In 2003, with what felt like an angel on my shoulder, I wrote a story that became a myth. Please join the Patreon to keep the channel. a more efficient organisation of operational and emergency services (harmonised, safer and more efficient emergency procedures, specifically for cross-border operation). 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. Some vehicles were still burning yesterday morning; others had been buried by rubble from the collapsed lining of the tunnel. They saved several people, ferrying them out to the Italian portal. greater awareness among users (car and truck drivers) on how to behave in emergency situations. He looks in his rear view mirror: his cargo of margarine and flour has caught fire. 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. 35 DEAD IN EUROPE TUNNEL FIRE - New York Post A cargo truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire while passing through the tunnel and when the driver stopped . Thats the one magazine every other motorcycle editor reads, and so several more ran it in translation. Except for his uniform and motorcycle, he was entirely inconspicuous. ), Antoine Chandellier is a French journalist who has reported on the Haute Savoie region for decades. Since then, Mr. Berthier has become a global evangelist for tunnel fire safety. He closed the fire door and waited. Mont Blanc Tunnel, France, Italy, and Switzerland - Building the World 20. Pierlucio Tinazzi, the biker nicknamed Spadino. And he soft-pedaled his actions in the days after the fire, because he didnt want to take anything away from Tinazzis sacrifice. On the morning of 24 March 1999, 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine, which had entered the French-side portal, caught fire in the tunnel.[1][2]. . A year after the fire, thousands of bikers gathered at the Italian portal to commemorate him. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Northeast of Mont Blanc's summit, the tunnel is about 15km (10mi) southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent. Their bodies were found several hundred metres from the site of the crash, just beyond the halfway point between the French and Italian tunnel mouths. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is not like any other road tunnel: at 11.6 kilometers long, it was the world's longest road tunnel when it opened for traffic on July 19, 1965. The region needed a hero, and soon after the fire, the government of Italy honored Mr. Tinazzi with a gold medal for civilian bravery. A link between France and Italy, its crossing needs a dozen minutes. Berthier talked to me about the first Memorial Spadino biker gathering. Compounding the emotional toll, a lengthy renovation closed the tunnel and hurt tourist traffic. At the time of its construction, it was three times longer than any existing highway tunnel.[2]. It is 11.7 km (7.3 miles) long and crosses under the highest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc. 17 inside the Mont Blanc 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. Eleven bodies had been accounted for by yesterday afternoon but now up to 30 more people are feared missing. These fumes quickly filled the tunnel and restricted oxygen, disabling vehicles including fire engines which, once affected, had to be abandoned by the firefighters. At least 35 people died in the 1,800-degree inferno that erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy . Over the years, there have been a few occasions when complete strangers thanked me for writing. On 24th March, 1999, the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred, with Tinazzi riding into the tunnel in an attempt to save lives on the French side. The Volvo trundled in, on its way to Italy. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly. It was initiated by a heavy goods vehicle which stopped near the middle of the tunnel and immediately burst into flames. He appeared to be in his 50s at the time of the fire, so its not certain hes still alive. which occurred between 1999 and 2001. Safety precautions have been tightened in recent years. Melted wiring had eliminated any possible light sources in the tunnel; in the smoke and with abandoned and wrecked vehicles blocking their path, both fire engines were unable to proceed, and were blocked at garage 17, 1200 metres from the burning truck. On March 24, 1999, the fire began close to the center of the 7.2-mile tunnel. They were blocked at garage 22 and had also abandoned their vehicles, and searched for trapped groups of firefighters who had taken refuge in the fire cubicles. [6] Surveillance cameras were installed in 1978. Family members of the victims of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel accident walk I fell asleep that night increasingly certain that I had gotten Searching for Spadino wrong, but lacking real evidence. Within the tunnel, a minimum speed of 50km/h and a maximum speed of 70km/h applies, while the prescribed distance between vehicles is 150 m; trucks are allowed to enter in groups of five. Twenty years ago, Pierlucio "Spadino" Tinazzi was a security guard who patrolled the Mont Blanc tunnel in the Alps by motorcycle, in order to ensure a steady flow of traffic. He was just a quiet man who had tried to do the right thing in the face of an inferno. Hence a systematic analysis of less severe, but more frequent incidents (collisions and fires) may provide a more representative picutre of real tunnel incidents. By 11:30, 37 minutes after start of the fire, smoke had reached the French entrance of the tunnel, 6 kilometres from the truck. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via the French Route Nationale 205 and the Italian Traforo T1 (forming the European route E25), in particular the motorways serving Geneva (A40 of France) and Turin (A5 of Italy). So you can imagine why newspapers and magazines are not interested in revising [the] account.. what happens if you snitch on the cartel. The tunnel diverts traffic that used to crawl through downtown. Eight drivers, including the driver of the Belgian truck thought to have caused the accident, are known to have escaped before the fire reached its height. Searching for Spadino. That always made my day. Mont Blanc Tunnel (Chamonix-Mont-Blanc/Courmayeur, 1965) - Structurae At 11:10 six Chamonix firefighters entered the tunnel, but were blocked at the garage 17, 2700 meters from the truck. The Mont Blanc Tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. [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. 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. Moreover, this report presents updated statistical data on tunnel collisions (Chapter 3) and fires (Chapter 4) for many countries. Closures and forecasts - Mont Blanc Tunnel [1] Drilling began in 1959 and was completed in 1962; the tunnel was opened to traffic on 19 July 1965. The fire refuges were greatly improved in the extensive renovation that followed the 1999 fire. Direction Italy - France. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Get up to 10% off using the Booking.com app, 50 off over 650 using this Expedia discount code, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected product with this eBay voucher code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK May 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this May, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. Shortly before 9:00 am . It passes almost directly under Europes highest peak. 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. He tells me, That legend had been woven by the Italian media before anyone knew exactly what had really happened. On 24th March 1999 a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc tunnel between Italy and France. When the Mont Blanc tunnel was built in 1965, the transalpine crossing was considered . (It changed tunnel engineering and safety standards around the world, and is still top of mind for civil engineers working on huge tunnel infrastructure projects like the recently opened SR 99 tunnel in Seattle.). The lessons learnt are summarised in Table 3.5 of this report. Corrections? I looked again at the citation for the FIM medal. 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. Paolo Sormani, the motorcycle writer who had initially been reticent, seemed to have a change of heart a few days later, when he wrote back in Italian-accented English to explain. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Mont Blanc Tunnel Toll Prices - Get from France to Italy - Chamonix 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. It measures 11.6 kilometers (7.2miles) in length, two-thirds of which lies in France. After a long chat over Skype on technical topics, I asked whether he could confirm Tinazzis actions. An investigation found no evidence of a design fault with the truck. [2] He was also given a special gold medal by the motorcycle sport governing body Fdration Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). A trial has opened in France to establish responsibility for a fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel which killed 39 people almost six years ago. The sentence was upheld on appeal. It was more than five days before the tunnel cooled sufficiently to start repairs. The refuge had a fire door rated to a four-hour standard. Over the next 35 years of uneventful service, those superlatives were taken for granted. Save almost 70%: 15.21 instead of 48.80 one way. Download file to see previous pages. The tunnel, opened with great fanfare in 1965, is seven miles long. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly Bike. Thats the one magazine every other motorcycle editor reads, and so several more ran it in translation. Thirty-nine people were killed. Appendix 5 of the technical report 2016 R35 Experience with Significant Incidents in Road Tunnels provides a survey of 32 randomly selected real tunnel incidents, including a short description as well as important conclusions and improvements that could be identified for specific types of incidents or tunnel systems. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. 10-trip package: 163.30; Valid for 2 years in addition to the validation month. Mont Blanc Tunnel fire - Wikipedia Introduction. Updates? The heat was so intense and the fumes so thick that the first group of Italian firefighters who tried to approach the inferno were forced to retreat through the ventilation shafts. It began on March 24, 1999 when a Volvo FH12 semi-truck from Belgium, carrying a cargo of nine tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour, stopped to pay the toll at the French portal of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Near the fire, he came upon Maurice Lebras, a French truck driver who was unconscious. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mont-Blanc-Tunnel, British Broadcasting Corporation - Mont Blanc tunnel. Reporters described him making four trips into the tunnel, ferrying people out on his motorcycle. Pedestrians can cross the tunnel by bus; bicycles can also be carried through the tunnel with a reservation. 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). The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. Or, he might simply have chosen that moment to make a routine return trip to Italy. ChamonixCourmayeur11.68.6 But I never really dug back into it. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. I suppose I sympathize with any editor who chose to downplay a correction, after a devastated region had drawn inspiration from so unlikely a hero. This was not yet considered a fire emergency. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps.
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