If I Googled Pierlucio Tinazzi with my language preference set to English, the top results linked to my story or follow-up pieces by others. The fire spread over 34 vehicles and was finally extinguished after 53 hours. Tracy Connor. In a subsequent email exchange, Jean-Marc Berthier pointed out that Spadino was not trained or equipped to fight a fire. He had been devastated when his wife, who hated the alpine winters, left him and returned to her native Puglia in the far south. It is one of the major trans-alpine routes, and up to a third of Italy's freight passed through it, with 766,000 heavy goods vehicles using the tunnel in 1998. Fourteen firefighters on two trucks from the ski resort of Chamonix reached the French portal in minutes. The fire burned for 50 hours. So you can imagine why newspapers and magazines are not interested in revising [the] account.. Between 10:53 and 10:57, the smoke had already covered half a kilometre of the French side. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}455358N 65151E / 45.8995N 6.8642E / 45.8995; 6.8642. Today in Fire History 3/24 - LinkedIn I fell asleep that night increasingly certain that I had gotten. 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. It was more than five days before the tunnel cooled sufficiently to start repairs. The first, Seconds from Disaster Tunnel Inferno (aired 2004), was a reconstruction of the events leading up to and during the disaster and the conclusions of the investigation that followed. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. [8], On the morning of 24 March 1999, the engine of a Belgian transport truck carrying volatile freight caught fire in the tunnel. Webcams Account verification Call for Bids. The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. By. 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. [Read the original Times coverage of the 1999 fire at the Mont Blanc Tunnel.]. A year after the fire, thousands of bikers gathered at the Italian portal to commemorate him. The judicial inquiry is expected to concentrate on the safety standards of the 34-year- old single-bore tunnel - especially the absence of an escape tunnel and the adequacy of the ventilation system. We shall answer you as soon as possible. Investigations following the horrific tunnel fire that claimed the lives of 39 travellers and closed the vital France-Italy Alpine route to all traffic in March 1999, revealed that safety aspects of the Mont Blanc highway tunnel fell far short of adequate standards for the busy 11.4km single-tube, two-lane, bi-directional road tunnel. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mont-Blanc-Tunnel, British Broadcasting Corporation - Mont Blanc tunnel. 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. Structure: Tunnel: . They plunged into thick, toxic smoke. [7] The closest smoke detector was out of order, and French emergency services did not use the same radio frequency as those inside the tunnel. All the vehicles destroyed appear to have been trapped in the inferno that followed, estimated by officials to have reached a temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius. [7], The tunnel underwent extensive modernisation works in 1990, including the addition of safety features such new video surveillance cameras, 8 pressurized emergency shelters, a sprinkler system and other safety maintenance. Conclusions drawn from the enquiry following the Mont Blanc tunnel fire were that fatal consequences could be greatly reduced by: After the fire of March 24th 1999, the Mont Blanc tunnel required significant renovation before it was able to be reopened to traffic. Resistance to sprinklers in the name of safety has been a recurring theme. Tinazzi dragged him into Niche No. Pierlucio Tinazzi (1962-1999) - Find a Grave Memorial Direction Italy - France. ICYMI:WSJreporter explains why he was fired, Fdration Internationale de Motocyclisme. Pierlucio Tinazzi - Wikipedia The Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy experienced a widely publicized fire disaster in March 1999, when a truck traveling through the 11,6 km long tunnel burst into flames 6 km into the structure. William Connell, a tunnel systems engineer, was working on the enormous tunnel project known as the Big Dig in Boston at the time of the fire. Of course now, Im embarrassed that it took me 14 years to correct the record. The magnitude of death and destruction reverberated widely. greater awareness among users (car and truck drivers) on how to behave in emergency situations. Two decades ago, 39 people died inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel in a fire so horrific it changed safety standards forever. Spadino might have seen something, or heard something from one of the drivers exiting the tunnel, that made him suspect that a truck was in trouble. 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). Over the next 35 years of uneventful service, those superlatives were taken for granted. Pierlucio Tinazzi (lost radio communication from Mont Blanc Tunnel fire Mont-Blanc tunnel fire: what lessons 24 years later? - Archyde The likelihood of escalation of incidents into major events is low, however the consequences of such incidents can be severe in terms of victims, damage to the structure and impact on the transport economy. Spadino Pierlucio Tinazzi, who got his nickname, Italian for a thin, light sword, when he was young was just outside the French portal on his motorcycle. It measures 11.6 kilometers (7.2miles) in length, two-thirds of which lies in France. [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. It includes heat detectors that can locate a fire to within 10 feet, and, as in Miami, a deluge system can dump several tropical rainstorms worth of water into a fire zone, while leaving the rest of the tunnel dry. It reads in part: The motorcyclist Pierlucio Tinazzi entered the smoke filled tunnel from the Italian side a number of times and successfully brought out on his motorcycle many motorists whose vehicles had been trapped inside the tunnel. Italian highway network. tunnelmb.net Wikipedia We learned from Mont Blanc that people dont die from the fire they die from the fumes and smoke, Mr. Hodgkins said. Mont-Blanc tunnel fire: what lessons 24 years later? The agreement between France and Italy on building a tunnel was signed in 1949. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The Mont Blanc tunnel fire March 1999 killed 39 persons, of which most died within 15 min due to intoxication. Do not hesitate to send us your comments, questions and suggestions. Near the fire, he came upon Maurice Lebras, a French truck driver who was unconscious. I suppose a part of me always worried the story was too good to be true. 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. They were able to see the burning truck. Around 11 a.m., a Volvo FH12 tractor-trailer, registered in Belgium, stopped to pay the toll. [1] The event expanded into a catastrophe which cost the lives of 39 people. By then tales of Tinazzis bravery had already spread far and wide. The toxic effects of the fire product are important in the second and third phase. An Italian or French-language search for the heros name, yielded posts that were a lot more circumspect when it came to describing Tinazzis actions that day. A year after the fire, thousands of bikers gathered at the Italian portal to commemorate him. The Italian company responsible for operating the tunnel, SITMB, paid 13.5 million ($17.5 million US) to a fund for the families of the victims. A statement from the Mont Blanc Tunnel and Autoroute, made up of the French and Italian agencies that operate the tunnel, said today that ''despite extreme difficulties in counting the. Select from premium Mont Blanc Tunnel of the highest quality. Earlier reports also present a statistical census of breakdowns, collisions and fires in selected tunnels, as well as the lessons to be drawn from such events for the geometric design of the tunnel, the design of the safety equipment and the operating guidelines: Send a review,a comment or a suggestionto the manual authors! 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. It was immediately obvious, as I began to read, that Spadino couldnt have saved anyone. [5] In 1962, the French and Italian drilling teams met on 4 August. Create your free account to access the additional media materials and receive alerts when new contents are published. [1] A commemorative plaque at the Italian entrance honours his sacrifice. which occurred between 1999 and 2001. 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. 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. ICYMI:Newspaper upgrades CEOs housing stipend to $35K a month amid buyouts. Northeast of Mont Blanc's summit, the tunnel is about 15km (10mi) southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent. To this day, no one can say with certainty why the rig caught fire. (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.). At least 35 people died in the 1,800-degree inferno that erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy . Called the Mont Blanc Vehicular Tunnel, the stretch opened 12 years later. 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. Then I discovered it wasn't true", Italian decoration "Medaglia d'Oro al Valore Civile", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierlucio_Tinazzi&oldid=1143687156, Dying while trying to rescue survivors of the, This page was last edited on 9 March 2023, at 07:59. 120 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 120 MONT BLANC TUNNEL FIRE Premium High Res Photos Browse 120 MONT BLANC TUNNEL FIRE photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. Other victims were found in "sealed" safety refuges, built eight years ago. 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. Five tunnel fires, all in Europe, resulted in 72 deaths. It had been open nearly 35 years without a single fatal incident until the morning of March 24, 1999. was the first magazine to print it, in 2003. All the deceased were on the French side, and were ultimately reduced to bones and ash by the intense heat. 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. Closures and forecasts - Mont Blanc Tunnel 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. The opening was successful, with an axis variation of less than 13 centimetres (5 inches). Ten tried to escape on foot, but it was too far to fresh air, and they couldnt outrun the toxic fumes. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. Technical report 05.05B Fire and smoke control in road tunnels. Some lessons learned can be given as examples, such as: However, it is not possible to give generally applicable recommendations on the basis of these findings because these may be different in dependence of the specific conditions of an individual country and an individual tunnel. [13] In 2016, the one-way ticket for a car cost 43.50 (44.20 on the Italian side). 99 Tunnel, said the boring machine was 57 feet in diameter, providing room for spaces for safety systems in addition to the roadways. Berthier talked to me about the first Memorial Spadino biker gathering. Toll Rises to 35 in Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire - New York Times A few minutes after Mr. Tinazzi rode in, two trucks from the Chamonix Fire Department arrived carrying 14 firefighters. 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. It was immediately obvious, as I began to read, that Spadino couldnt have saved anyone. Extract of sample "Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire". These fumes quickly filled the tunnel and restricted oxygen, disabling vehicles including fire engines which, once affected, had to be abandoned by the firefighters. In less than two hours, the tunnel was reopened to traffic. No one could survive downwind, but a small Italian crew was able to get quite close to the fire from the other side. I looked again at the citation for the FIM medal. Forty-one people died in the March 24 fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel connecting France with Italy, which burned for two days. The death toll from a fire which trapped trucks and cars in the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy is 35, the operator for the Italian side of the tunnel said last . The driver, who had been alerted to a problem by oncoming vehicles, stopped almost in the middle of the 7.2-mile tunnel. Moreover, this report presents updated statistical data on tunnel collisions (Chapter 3) and fires (Chapter 4) for many countries. A MANSLAUGHTER investigation has been launched by French authorities into the horrific blaze in the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 35 died. Temperatures soared to 1,000C. On 24th March, 1999, a Volvo lorry travelling from France to Italy stopped and burst into flames midway through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. The tunnel, linking Italy and France, was . Please join the Patreon to keep the channel. 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. Refuges equipped with telephones, and capable of sheltering up to 40 people were excavated every 600 metres in 1991. 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. 40 deaths Mont Blanc Tunnel fire - Wikipedia They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. . The idea of building a tunnel underneath the Mont Blanc to avoid the need for lengthy circumnavigation dates back to the nineteenth century during the heyday of the railway. 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. A spokesman for the. Pedestrians can cross the tunnel by bus; bicycles can also be carried through the tunnel with a reservation. I spent a week seeking out his family, friends, and coworkers and imploring them to talk to me. A detailed description of the Mont Blanc, Tauern and St. Gotthard fires including the original configuration of the tunnels, and a step-by-step guide to the incident, fire progression, and the behaviour of operators, emergency services and users, as well as the lessons to be drawn can be found in the technical report 05.16B Systems and Jean-Marc, who until that point in our conversation had easily recalled facts and anecdotes, told me he couldnt remember the details. They listened as a river of incandescent margarine ignited fuel tanks and burst the tires of abandoned vehicles. The Italian company [that administered that end of the tunnel] also wanted an Italian hero, because they knew that as legal responsibility for the disaster was assigned, they were in opposition to the French company.. By 11:11, more Italian firefighters had come to tackle the fire. The system proved utterly incapable of pumping in cold air or removing the thick fumes from the burning margarine and flour and the loads of the other blazing trucks, including, it is believed, a tanker containing chlorine. This channel is for documentaries for educational use. Pierlucio had turned down a promotion to. Organise and calculate tunnel transit. Other vehicles travelling through the tunnel became . When it was opened it was the worlds longest and deepest road tunnel. The narrow tunnel turned into a furnace. All of them survived but their commanding officer, who died in a hospital. As I write this, Ive spent the last week going back over 76 pages of handwritten notes I made on that trip. The jet fans kept the tunnel air clear while it was evacuated. It would have been the story that led my obituary. In the Mont Blanc tunnel fire in 1999, for example, over 20 lorries were destroyed, and several people lost their lives. PDF Fire Safety in Tunnels - The Concrete Initiative Over the years, there have been a few occasions when complete strangers thanked me for writing. Fire damage rebuild of Mont Blanc road link - tunneltalk.com However, characteristic events are fortunately rare, and may be limited to specific circumstances. There were 29 deaths of people trapped inside of vehicles, and nine more died trying to escape on foot. I wonder if he ever realized his mistake, or tried to correct the record. Sure enough, in December 2017, a car erupted into flames in the tunnel. The sentence was upheld on appeal. Remember the wind in the tunnel, pushing the smoke and heat from the fire towards France? The fire spread to other cargo vehicles nearby that also carried combustible loads. . Le tunnel du St. Gothard est le plus long (16 920 m), suivi par le tunnel du Mont Blanc et le tunnel des Tauern (11 600 m et 6 400 m respectivement). Before Mont Blanc, tunnel engineers were divided on the benefit of sprinkler systems. Having died trying to save another man, Tinazzi was lauded as a hero, buried with honors, and posthumously awarded Italy's Medaglia d'Oro al Valore Civile. It fulfilled a 150-year-old dream and is of great economic importance, providing a significantly shortened year-round automotive route between the two countries. I tell people, This is like a building for cars.. Victims 11 deaths 5 deaths 155 deaths 12 deaths 39 deaths 5 deaths 2 injured Vehicles damaged 10 cars 23 lorries . Tunnel du Mont Blanc - Tempratures atteintes dans la chausse et comportement au feu de la chausse, Document Nicholas Borghi is a skier, heading from his home in Italy to ski resorts in France. He was a mild-mannered introvert who loved gardening; occasionally he distributed a bumper crop of vegetables to other workers at the tunnel. In 2011, there were an average of 5,113 vehicles per day (about 1.87 million vehicles per year). [2] Degrave subsequently abandoned his vehicle and ran to the Italian entrance of the tunnel. On 24 March 1999, a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy. For what its worth, Im glad it fell to others to break the truth to bikers in Val dAosta. Mont Blanc Tunnel Map - Tunnel - France - Mapcarta [11] On 27 July 2005, thirteen defendants were found guilty, and received sentences ranging from fines to suspended prison sentences to six months in jail: A memorial plaque on the French side of the tunnel; pictured in 2010, remembering those who were killed in the fire. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire | A Short Documentary - YouTube A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for All, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/business/mont-blanc-tunnel-fire-anniversary-rescue.html. In 2016, we had Jean-Marc perform a safety review of the Port of Miami Tunnel, Mr. Hodgkins recalls. This motorcycle, scooter or moped-related article is a stub. At 11:39, another team of firefighters entered the tunnel from the French side but were blocked at the garage 5, 4,800 metres from the truck. Of course my readers are almost all English-speaking motorcyclists who would prefer to believe my original version, anyway. 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. The tunnel is a single bore two-lane tunnel with the shape of a horseshoe with a 7m wide roadway and two 0.8 walkways on either side. On 24 March 1999, a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy. [1] However, in 2019, a writer researching the story found the full description of the events in French police reports: A motorcycle security guard, Patrick Devouassoux, who survived the fire, did indeed save several people while driving a Renault Express minivan. Published Nov 24, 2019. When I pressed him, he fell silent for a moment before saying, My advice is, dont become preoccupied with some accounting of lives saved versus lives lost.. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Disaster - Everything2.com 35 die, 1 Briton missing in Mont Blanc tunnel fire The tunnel is 11.611km (7.215mi) in length, 8.6m (28ft) in width, and 4.35m (14.3ft) in height. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Disaster: Lessons Learned | Harvard Business
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