Lessons learned from catastrophic fires in tunnels

Following the spate of tunnel fires which occurred in Europe at the turn of the century, the safety of European tunnels was assessed and found to be generally poor. Tunnel safety can only be improved if the lessons of past incidents are learned properly. This paper looks at some of the lessons learned from the Kaprun funicular tunnel fire of 2000; the King's Cross underground station fire of 1987; the Baku subway fire of 1995 and the Channel Tunnel fire of 1996. Some recent advances in technology, specifically state-of-the-art ventilation and water suppression systems, are also discussed. The 2007 fire in the Burnley tunnel in Australia is highlighted as an example of an incident where technology prevented the initial fire growing into a catastrophe.