Fire breaks out in Alpine tunnel
A fire has broken out in a tunnel between Italy and France, after a vehicle burst into flames.
The lorry which caught fire was carrying tyres, according to an Italian news agency.
A French report said French emergency services have entered the tunnel, but that Italian services were being held back by the intense heat.
There are no reports of injuries, but some vehicles are said to be trapped inside the 13km (eight-mile) tunnel.
Some news agencies are reporting one death Ian. There have been a couple of threads about it already, one here and one in the Euro Forum.
TC:
Fire breaks out in Alpine tunnelA fire has broken out in a tunnel between Italy and France, after a vehicle burst into flames.
The lorry which caught fire was carrying tyres, according to an Italian news agency.A French report said French emergency services have entered the tunnel, but that Italian services were being held back by the intense heat.
There are no reports of injuries, but some vehicles are said to be trapped inside the 13km (eight-mile) tunnel.
thought you where in the news team 
Cheers Neil,
The report I am getting from a French friend is that all the local news programs are reporting at least 12 casualties! Let’s hope and pray they are wrong
Lets hope so indeed. I really can’t begin to understand how two trucks can collide in there, as is being reported by some news agencies, it is a fairly wide tunnel, well lit and trucks have to keep 150 metres apart and there is a 70 km/ph limit.
Having said that I’ve driven through there and had a truck a matter of only a few metres behind me and that was after the fires in the Blanc and the Gotthard, some folk never learn.
Sadly it is reported that two people have died in this incident.
One victim was 23-year-old Slovene, Doliban Vukanovic, who is believed to have been driving one of the lorries.
The second was fellow driver Pavol Blanarovik, 24.
Our thoughts should be with the families and friends of these two young drivers.
The eight-mile tunnel has been closed indefinitely and engineers are worried some sections could collapse.
Its very sad, but at least not as bad as the french were 1st reporting!
Even the septics spotted this one…
Shame about those who lost their lives - but that aside, wonder what the knock-on effects will be for us?
ianyng:
Shame about those who lost their lives - but that aside, wonder what the knock-on effects will be for us?
I havent seen the pictures, so I dont know how bad the damage is, but closing the Frejus will be 10 times worse than when the Blanc was shut for 3 years.
Wasn’t the Blanc’s major damage caused by a truck load of tyres among other things?
I find it absolutely amazing that this type of incident could happen again…so shortly after the mont blanc tunnel fire…you would think that safety would have been a priority. " young drivers have lost their lives because of incompetence, they trusted the operators of the tunnel…like we all do to keep our safety a number one priority. I watched a program on sky t.v. a while ago which previewed what happened in the Blanc…apparentley a pice of paper or rag had been wedged in the air intake…and either a passing vehicle or even the driver himself discarded a lighted ciggy…this in turn was sucked into the air intake…causing the vehicle to catch fire…i believe his load was in wooden crates which caught fire and the contents caused toxic fumes to travel the length of the tunnel…this could have been avoided had the cameras not been turned off at the french side of the tunnel…maybe the frejus tunnel had their cameras turned off too…whatever happened it was complacency…or the attitude of it wont happen to me from the tunnel operators point of view…my heart goes out to the families of the deceaced fellow truckers…god rest…
In the case of the Blanc fire, there were several reasons why the fire spread and all those drivers lost their life 
apparently the fire started in a Volvo and the Italian authorities tried to sue Volvo for a design fault when it sucked in a discarded cigarette end to the air cleaner. Volvo have won that claim and have proved that it wasnt a design fault, just a very unfortunate turn of events
The problem was that when the fire sensors went off, the tunnel wasnt closed fast enough and trucks were still entering it with no escape route.
Again sympathy to the drivers in this recent fire, but it seems like the tunnel authoritys still have lots to learn
whats the implications now then how will it affect evryone will there be lots of queueing the other way.
As the Frejus will be closed for a long time there will be implications. Extra traffic through Switzerland will be one as fridges and hazardous can’t use the Blanc so will either have to go Swiss or the Vent.
The Mont Blanc Tunnel Authority has imposed the following strict rules:
70 km/h speed limit.
150m security distance between trucks.
Dangerous goods forbidden.
No more than 240 trucks allowed to use the tunnel each hour.
That last rule will no doubt cause queues at busy times and with the usual restrictions at the Gotthard the queues in Swiss will be worse than normal, looks like it could be a boom time for the train services across Switzerland.
No more than 240 trucks allowed to use the tunnel each hour.
Will someone actually stand there and count them 
kitkat:
No more than 240 trucks allowed to use the tunnel each hour.
Will someone actually stand there and count them
Yes. You have to leave the motorway and drive through a control area where a ticket is issued and the barrier raised to let you proceed up to the tunnel so they will count them that way.
Coffeeholic:
kitkat:
No more than 240 trucks allowed to use the tunnel each hour.
Will someone actually stand there and count them
Yes. You have to leave the motorway and drive through a control area where a ticket is issued and the barrier raised to let you proceed up to the tunnel so they will count them that way.
Ok thanks for that neil.Rather you than me m8. 
Not likely to be me Jim, I haven’t been down to Italy for getting on for a year. 
Coffeeholic:
Not likely to be me Jim, I haven’t been down to Italy for getting on for a year.
Time to call neil’s office