Memorial 10 years after the Mont Blanc tunnel fire
Tomorrow morning the main road up to Chamonix from the valley will be eerily quiet with no lorries, just as it was for over two years as the Mont Blanc tunnel remained shut after the devastating fire on the 24th March 1999.
The fire, which started in a lorry carrying butter and flour which caught fire in the middle of the tunnel between Chamonix and Entreves in Italy, killed 39 people. Tomorrow, the Secretary of State for Transport, Dominique Bussereau, will attend a memorial service to remember the victims 10 years on.
The tunnel will be closed to all traffic between 09:00 and 12:30 as the ceremony takes place. Lorries will be stacked on the motorway and cars will wait.
Since the fire, Andre Denis, president of the associations of the victims of the fire has commented : "With the tunnel we have today there would have be no victims in 1999". This is reference to the fact that over 400 million euros has been spent on rebuilding and upgrading the tunnel following the fire.
There are now evacuation chambers, four full security exercises per year, 150 cameras in and around the tunnel, 4500 heat detection units and 10 firefighters permanently stationed at three posts. A speed limit of 70km/h and an obligatory distance of 150m between each vehicle has been enforced since the tunnel re-opened in 2002.
With all these security measures in place, there were 297 registered 'incidences' in 2008 alone, covering anything from broken down vehicles, to slow downs and vehicles pulling over for no apparent reason, but these resulted in only 50 call outs for the firefighters.
Sunday the 29th March will see a memorial service for Italian motorbike patroller Pier Luccio Tizzani, known to his friends as Spadino, who was one of the 39 victims in the tunnel fire. Last year over 1300 motorbikers and members French and Italian motorbike federations gathered to pay their respects. For this ceremony, the tunnel will be closed between 14:00 and 15:15.
Source : Dauphine LIbere
