Mont Blanc fire guard

摘要

Few refurbishments could have more significance than that for the Mont Blanc tunnel, closed since the devastating fire tragedy last year. Intensive work to rebuild it for safety is starting, reports Adrian Greeman. The world was stunned last year by the scale, rapidity and intensity of the all-consuming traffic fire which broke out in the two lane Mont Blanc road tunnel between Italy and France. The fierce heat and dense smoke claimed 39 lives as it reduced vehicles virtually to molten puddles (T&TI May 1999 p6). A stretch of the tunnel, roughly 1km long, was severely damaged in the Italian sector.