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A truck carrying margarine and flour catches fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which connects France and Italy under Mont Blanc; 39 people are killed in the inferno.
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00:01The Alps, Europe's majestic wonderland.
00:05Yet deep inside lies one of the world's longest road tunnels.
00:09Daily it carries thousands of motorists in safety.
00:14Until an ordinary lorry explodes into flames.
00:19The tunnel turns into a terrifying death trap in just 14 minutes.
00:24Now, with cutting-edge computer technology, we reveal exactly what went wrong.
00:32Disasters don't just happen, they're a chain of critical events.
00:38Unravel those fateful decisions in the final seconds from disaster.
00:49Europe, France, Mont Blanc.
00:56March 24th, 1999.
01:0010.30am.
01:03The world's deepest tunnel, cut through solid rock, lies 2,478 metres beneath Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain.
01:12It's a vital road link between France and Italy.
01:15One favoured by truck drivers, especially as it shortens their journey time from 7 hours to only 15 minutes.
01:22And saves the climb through winding mountain roads.
01:29More than 5,000 vehicles use the tunnel every day, including tourists, locals and lorries.
01:41It's a fine spring morning as British trucker John Whitby heads for the toll on the Italian side.
01:48As you come up through the mountains towards the tunnel entrance, it's very picturesque.
01:53And then there's this little black hole in the side of the mountain.
01:56Prior to this particular day, I'd always been quite happy to go through the tunnels.
02:04Some use the tunnel for pleasure.
02:06Extreme skier Nicolas Borghi is heading from his home in Italy to the ski slopes of France.
02:13That day, the snow conditions were perfect.
02:17It is my passion to ski off-piste.
02:24We packed our ski boots and all our other gear in the car and drove towards the tunnel.
02:31When we got there, we paid our tolls and entered the tunnel as we'd done a thousand times before.
02:47Normally, it takes Borghi 15 minutes to drive through the tunnel.
02:51Today's journey would be different.
02:53We invite you to comply with the safety regulations indicated on the information brochure.
03:03Surely, it's always dangerous to cross a tunnel, but nothing had ever happened before.
03:15As Borghi and Whitby drive through the tunnel from Italy to France, two independent control rooms monitor their progress.
03:22One on the Italian side and one on the French side.
03:33Up until now, it's just another day in the tunnel.
03:38A tunnel that has carried more than 45 million vehicles since it opened in 1965.
03:43A remarkable feat of engineering, it took four years to blast through the solid rocks in the Alps to create
03:50one of the longest road tunnels in the world.
03:53And one of the safest.
03:58Eighteen fire refugees are spaced every 600 meters throughout the tunnel.
04:03There are 77 emergency telephones with a dedicated rescue team at the French End and volunteer rescuers at the Italian
04:10End.
04:12Until the 24th of March 1999, it's free of major incidents.
04:19The teams have dealt with all previous lorry fires without major casualties.
04:24But all this is about to change.
04:3310.46 a.m.
04:35A 40-ton refrigerated lorry arrives at the toll booth on the French side of the tunnel.
04:39Just one of the 2,000 lorries that use the tunnel every day.
04:44Behind the wheel is Gilbert de Grave, a 57-year-old Belgian driver with 25 years experience.
04:5310.47 a.m.
04:55He enters the tunnel and reaches 60 kilometers per hour.
05:13His refrigerated Volvo lorry is carrying an everyday load.
05:179 tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour, destined for a food factory in Milan.
05:28Other lorries and cars enter the tunnel behind him.
05:33As always, 40 closed-circuit TV cameras monitor the progress of all vehicles.
05:4110.49
05:44De Grave's lorry has been in the tunnel for two minutes.
05:48But neither he nor the closed-circuit TV cameras can yet pick up the first signs of trouble.
05:53White smoke is escaping from behind his cab.
05:59De Grave's lorry is now more than 2,400 meters underground and over 2 kilometers into the tunnel.
06:08Unaware of the smoke, he continues on his journey.
06:1310.50
06:16The smoke increases.
06:21De Grave is nearing the middle of the tunnel.
06:26Nine sensors run the length of the tunnel.
06:29They feed information on the visibility to control rooms at either end.
06:34When visibility is reduced by 30%, it triggers an alarm.
06:38But the smoke billowing from De Grave's lorry is not that dense yet.
06:43At last, De Grave does notice.
06:48I looked at my side mirrors.
06:50I saw some smoke at the right side, but not much.
06:53So I drove on normally.
06:55It's 10.51.
06:59De Grave is 5 kilometers into the Frank side, and the situation is now far from normal.
07:06Oncoming cars and lorries can clearly see smoke from behind the cab.
07:09It passes under the trailer and swirls up towards the roof of the tunnel.
07:14More and more drivers realize something is seriously wrong.
07:18They try to get De Grave's attention.
07:2210.52
07:25Now the smoke is dense enough to trigger the tunnel sensors.
07:31These raise an alarm in the French control room.
07:33But not the Italian one, as it's been turned off because of a false alarm the previous day.
07:39False alarms are not uncommon.
07:42At this stage, only the French tunnel operator hears the alarm, but doesn't know its cause.
07:51Meanwhile, the entrance tolls to the tunnel remain open.
07:55Vehicles continue to enter from both ends.
08:04Finally, Gilbert De Grave can ignore the smoke no longer.
08:10As I drive, the smoke is increasing.
08:14I put on my hazard lights to warn the people behind and avoid an accident.
08:22It's 10.53.
08:24He brings his lorry to a halt.
08:26He's six kilometers in, the halfway point of the Mont Blanc tunnel.
08:30I stopped slowly.
08:31I got out of the truck and the smoke was much more noticeable.
08:34A cube quickly forms behind him.
08:40I tried to grab hold of the extinguisher, but I didn't have time because the whole cabin was in flames.
08:45Suddenly, it explodes.
08:51De Grave abandons his lorry and runs towards Italy.
08:55Driving towards him on the other side of the road is the Italian skier, Nicolas Borghi.
09:05I was halfway through the tunnel when I saw a glow far away.
09:10Then, when I was 20 meters away, I saw a massive flame and the truck driver running away.
09:20The queue behind De Grave's lorry is growing.
09:2438 men and women are stuck in their vehicles.
09:26None of them can see the danger ahead.
09:31But John Whitby, who's coming from the opposite direction, can.
09:36We looked down the tunnel and couldn't see anything but blackness.
09:39But what we didn't know at that point was that blackness was actually thick smoke.
09:48And that thick smoke is rapidly enveloping the vehicles stuck behind the Grave's lorry.
09:54Within seconds, the road tunnel will turn into a raging inferno.
10:09A lorry travelling from France to Italy in the Mont Blanc tunnel stops and erupts into flames.
10:15A line of vehicles comes to a halt behind it.
10:21Alarms trigger in the tunnel's control rooms.
10:24But operators do not yet realize the seriousness of the situation and continue to allow vehicles to enter the tunnel
10:30from its two entrances in France and Italy.
10:3910.54. The lorry's been on fire for one minute.
10:43Someone in the tunnel sees the smoke and uses the emergency phone at Refuge 22, 300 meters from the lorry,
10:49to raise the alarm.
10:51It rings through to the Italian control room.
10:55The operator there gets his first direct information that there's a serious problem.
11:00Immediately, the Italian and French controllers speak to each other.
11:06Now, they can clearly see the smoke on their monitors.
11:11But they can't see the lorry. It's hidden by the smoke.
11:19Realizing the danger, they close the tunnel to new vehicles at both sides.
11:27But for the 25 vehicles and 38 people who've already followed de Graves' lorry into the tunnel, it's too late.
11:35They're either driving towards the lorry, or they're already stuck behind it.
11:5110.56. By now, thick black smoke is moving over the first of the vehicles trapped behind the lorry back
11:58towards France.
12:01But ahead of the flaming lorry towards Italy, the smoke is spreading more slowly.
12:06Drivers coming from that direction include Nicolas Borghi.
12:13I myself and the cars behind me were able to reverse until we reached a lay-by, where we could
12:18do a U-turn and head towards the exit.
12:30In the Italian control room, an operator sees the fleeing vehicles and pumps fresh air in towards them.
12:39But this increased airflow moves through the tunnel towards the fire and onto France.
12:44When air hits fire, it's a problem.
12:54Like Borghi, John Whitby is also trying to escape.
13:00He stops 300 meters from the inferno.
13:10But the tunnel is too narrow for his lorry to turn.
13:13He has no choice but to abandon it.
13:16As he does, he looks back on the trapped vehicles.
13:20There must have been a lot of people that just did not stand a chance at all.
13:25It must have been absolutely horrifying for them.
13:30As Whitby makes his escape, the fire is burning fiercely, producing more and more thick black smoke.
13:4110.57.
13:42The fire has been raging for just four minutes.
13:45Yet the killer smoke has already covered almost half a kilometer on its way towards France.
13:54The alarm reaches the tunnel's rescue team stationed at the French entrance.
13:58A four-man team prepares to go in.
14:0310.58.
14:06The wall of smoke from the epicenter of the fire obscures the view of the closed-circuit TV cameras.
14:14And as the French rescue team enter the tunnel, they don't know that 38 people are stuck in their vehicles
14:20behind the lorry.
14:27For the drivers, the situation is horrific.
14:30The visibility is reduced to half a meter.
14:33Panicked, some try to drive away.
14:39But the lack of oxygen kills their engines and their only means of escape.
14:45In desperation, some try to get to refuges, specially designed fireproof rooms located every 600 meters.
14:53But their quest is futile.
14:59It's a living nightmare.
15:06Most of those trapped are unconscious within minutes.
15:15It's now 11 o'clock.
15:21As the scale of the catastrophe grows, firefighters from the French town of Chamonix scramble to enter the tunnel.
15:33But they manage to travel less than four kilometers before their vehicle is engulfed by the wall of smoke.
15:42Unable to turn it around, they're forced to abandon it and seek shelter in a maintenance room where they'll remain
15:48for five hours.
15:56Still no emergency services managed to reach the center of the blaze.
16:02Now the first rescuers enter from the Italian side, where the smoke is spreading more slowly.
16:07John Whitby is still by his lorry when he sees them.
16:11The wail of sirens came down the tube and they screamed past us down into the darkness ahead.
16:21And they were sort of swallowed up by the smoke, actually.
16:24The Italian volunteer rescuers get within 300 meters.
16:28But one patrolman gets within 10 meters of the lorry before a new danger forces them all to turn back.
16:35There were six explosions in rapid succession which were just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
16:40Very quick.
16:42And they were very powerful explosions.
16:45Tyres from the vehicles explode.
16:47They send deadly shrapnel flying.
16:55The tunnel walls shook with the force of the explosion.
16:59Within a minute or two of that happening, the fire brigade were back.
17:07As they retreat, the Italians rescue John Whitby and other drivers.
17:12Among them is Gilbert de Grave, the driver of the lorry that starts the inferno.
17:18They exit the tunnel on the Italian side.
17:20They've all made a miraculous escape.
17:28It's 11-11.
17:34Italian firefighters enter the tunnel to try to tackle the blaze.
17:47Leading them is fire chief Dionysi Glari.
17:53We could see in the distance a wall of smoke that we tried to penetrate with our vehicle.
18:00But again, the smoke is too thick and Glari and his team are forced to retreat.
18:05They seek shelter in refuge number 24, one of the tunnel's fireproof rooms where they'll be safe for two hours.
18:14But for these firefighters, the drama isn't over.
18:20They receive word about some colleagues who are trapped. But where?
18:26Bravely, Glari and his team leave the safety of refuge 24 and head out into the smoke to try to
18:32find them.
18:38We were walking in the tunnel with one hand along the walls so as to find our way.
18:49Reaching the next refuge, we entered, looked around and found there was no one there.
18:57The conditions worsen and after 10 minutes the firefighters are forced back to refuge 24 to find to their disbelief
19:04that the smokeproof room now offers them little protection.
19:13We saw smoke coming from the ventilation vents that should send clean air into the refuge.
19:19With their breathing apparatus running on empty, they're desperately short of air.
19:24Outside, the operation commander hatches a plan.
19:27The trapped firefighters are told that beneath the road is a ventilation duct full of fresh air which may offer
19:33a means of escape.
19:35The problem is finding the door without getting lost in the smoke.
19:42To reach this doorway, we had to use an electrical extension lead that we tied to the door of the
19:46refuge
19:47and then went to look for the doorway.
19:51At the same time, more Italian firefighters are sent in through the ventilation duct to try to open the door
19:57from below.
20:02The moment they opened that door, that was the moment I glimpsed a possibility of escape.
20:12The rescuers become the rescued. After three hours, Glary and his team are able to escape through the ventilation duct.
20:24But what they don't know is that 38 people are still trapped inside a tunnel where temperatures reach over 1
20:31,000 degrees.
20:4111.30.
20:4537 minutes after the lorry erupts in flames, the dense deadly smoke now stretches more than six kilometers.
20:52Filling the tunnel all the way to the French exit.
21:04Firefighters abandon all efforts to attack the flames.
21:10No one in the tunnel has a chance of survival.
21:17Such is the ferocity of the fire that it burns for 53 hours.
21:25Only then can firefighters pick their way through the charred debris.
21:31They are horrified to discover the remains of the 38 trapped people.
21:37These pictures reveal the true extent of the horror.
21:42Those who survive like Nicholas Borghi are astonished at the fire's ferocity.
21:51More shocking is that the heat had melted the steel in the lorries.
21:55You could only see the basis of the lorries, the skeleton.
21:59What could have happened to those poor people left in there?
22:04The disaster takes everyone by surprise.
22:08How could such a catastrophe occur here?
22:12How could an ordinary lorry carrying an ordinary load of margarine and flour end up causing one of the worst
22:18road tunnel disasters on record?
22:23From the moment the lorry enters the tunnel, it takes just 14 minutes for 38 people to perish.
22:31Now we rewind the events of that fateful day and go deep into the investigation to reveal what really happened.
22:43Advanced computer simulation will take us where no camera can go, into the heart of the disaster zone.
22:52A team of experts is assembled to investigate the fire.
22:56Using their data, we can piece together the deadly chain of events to find out what caused this terrible tragedy.
23:05The first mystery facing the experts is what starts the fire in the lorry.
23:12They trace the lorry's journey on its approach to the tunnel.
23:17This is where problems could first occur.
23:21Lorries frequently overheat on the long climb up to the tunnel entrance.
23:28Investigators examine the remains of the Volvo lorry.
23:31Is there a fault with the FH-12 engine?
23:35After intensive tests, they find no conclusive evidence of overheating.
23:41Then, a breakthrough.
23:47The investigators find particles inside the engine that can only have got there if the air filter had burnt before
23:53the main fire.
23:56But how could the air filter have burnt first?
24:01One theory is that a casually discarded cigarette from a passing vehicle enters the lorry's air filter on top of
24:07the cabin.
24:11The cigarette travels down to the filter, which catches fire.
24:16Particles then enter the engine, causing that to catch fire and thus starting the blaze.
24:22It's a strong possibility.
24:26Investigators then carry out an experiment on a similar lorry in similar conditions.
24:32Although not conclusive, it proves a cigarette, but entering the air filter could cause a fire.
24:39But that in itself is not enough to cause a tragedy on the scale of the Mont Blanc tunnel fire.
24:44So how did this small fire turn into a raging inferno?
24:59Deep in the Mont Blanc tunnel, a mine of fire suddenly goes out of control.
25:03In 14 minutes, 38 people perish.
25:09Using advanced computer graphics based on the official reports, we go deep into the investigation to unravel the chain of
25:17deadly events.
25:20Investigators believe it starts with a small fire smouldering in the engine beneath the cab.
25:2714 minutes from disaster, de Grave enters the tunnel.
25:35But the fire only erupts after he stops and abandons his vehicle.
25:39Could the movement of air prevent the fire taking hold?
25:45Experts know that lorry fires can develop more quickly when vehicles slow down or stop, because then the supply of
25:51oxygen increases, which feeds the fire.
25:54Edgar Lear is a fire expert.
25:56There was a recent example where a bus had caught fire in an alpine tunnel, and the bus driver continued
26:03driving, managed to get the vehicle through the tunnel to the other side, managed to evacuate the vehicle, and then
26:10the bus erupted into flames.
26:13Perhaps if de Grave had continued driving, he could have made it to the end of the tunnel before the
26:18fire flared up.
26:23But he didn't.
26:26Seven minutes from disaster, he stops halfway through the tunnel.
26:31Almost immediately, the lorry bursts into flames.
26:38But why did it spread so quickly?
26:42Underneath the refrigerated trailer, just meters from the flames, are the lorry's diesel tanks.
26:49Investigators realize that in previous lorry fires, diesel is a contributing factor.
26:57Did diesel from de Grave's lorry fuel the fire?
27:02Didier Lacroix has studied hundreds of fires and knows where to look.
27:10The difference between this fire and the 17 fires that had occurred before was that it started very quickly.
27:21It spread to 34 vehicles.
27:26But Lacroix discovers that de Grave's lorry is only carrying 550 litres of diesel.
27:33His tank is only half full.
27:35It can't explain the rapid spread of the fire.
27:38Lacroix digs deeper.
27:41He re-examines every second of the lorry's journey from the moment it enters the tunnel.
27:56His team turned their attention to the contents of the refrigerated trailer.
28:01It's only carrying 9 tons of margarine and 12 tons of flour, a seemingly harmless load.
28:06They're not even classified as dangerous goods.
28:11But with little else to go on, they begin to experiment with the cargo.
28:19One of the things we discovered was that goods that are not classified officially as dangerous can lead to a
28:30very serious fire.
28:37Here, a simple demonstration shows how one tonne of margarine simulates the cargo.
28:43It's wrapped in polystyrene sheets, the same insulation material lining the refrigerated trailer.
28:51After just two minutes, it proves to be a highly combustible combination.
28:57In refrigerated vans, you have polyurethane, and when this burns, it produces a lot of heat.
29:06It can burn very rapidly.
29:08When the margarine melts due to the fire, it's an oil-based material, and it will also rapidly burn, producing
29:16quite a lot of heat.
29:17Margarine has a very high energy content.
29:20Incredibly, when it's melted, it's almost as dangerous as petrol.
29:23Our experiment shows how dangerous things can be in the open air.
29:27But fire experts know that in the confines of tunnels, fires burn much more intensely, because there are limited outlets
29:34for the heat to escape.
29:38To find out more, this research facility is conducting large-scale fire tests in a disused road tunnel in Norway.
29:47Simulated trailers with various loads are set alight.
29:50The purpose of the tests is to investigate the heat generated by lorries carrying typical loads, such as packing crates
29:58and furniture.
29:58These experiments produce the world's highest heat release rating ever recorded in a tunnel fire test.
30:05But is margarine even more flammable?
30:08The Mont Blanc team calculates that the burning load of margarine may have created an even higher heat rating.
30:14The intensity of the fire on March 24, 1999 takes everyone by surprise, including Mont Blanc tunnel expert, Jean Martinetti.
30:23The fire reached between 1,000 and 1,200 degrees. Nothing could withstand it.
30:29Everything melted, the ground, the concrete, the structure. It was completely unthinkable, a real crematorium.
30:35It's a beautiful day.
30:37It's a beautiful day.
30:39It's a beautiful day.
30:40It's a beautiful day.
30:42Investigators are shocked that such a simple cargo of margarine and flour, not classified as dangerous,
30:48can produce a fire almost as powerful as a 30,000-litre petrol tanker.
30:57But 14 other lorries are stuck in an 800-metre queue behind the first burning lorry.
31:03Could these have contributed to the fire?
31:08The second truck was also carrying margarine.
31:12There were two trucks carrying large quantities of polyethylene.
31:17The combined firepower of these lorries burning together takes the inferno to another unimaginable level of horror
31:24for the 38 people trapped in the tunnel.
31:27The vehicles that were involved in the fire had the energy content equivalent of about five to seven petal tankers
31:35full of fuel.
31:38But for these vehicles to contribute to the inferno, the fire first had to spread to them.
31:44So how did that happen?
31:45Three explanations emerge.
31:51First, the burning truck radiates heat and generates hot gases that in the confines of a tunnel can ignite vehicles
31:58a great distance from the fire.
32:03Another way is that the vehicle that's on fire is leaking fuel and it runs along the length of the
32:09tunnel.
32:11Yet another way is if the fire is very intense, the road surface itself catches fire and then that will
32:21ignite the other vehicles in the tunnel.
32:26Investigators are not able to prove which of the three methods causes the fire to spread.
32:31But they do make another discovery.
32:33Fire is not the real killer.
32:41We found out later that people died in the cars before they could even open the doors and get out.
32:51So if fire is not the killer, what is?
33:06A smouldering lorry enters the Mont Blanc tunnel.
33:11The driver stops and suddenly his truck explodes into flames.
33:22Investigators know that the driver manages to escape the inferno by running towards Italy.
33:28But 38 motorists behind his lorry back towards France perish.
33:33Why?
33:42Investigators focus on the smoke given off by the fire.
33:46Without realising it, John Whitby is a witness to this deadly wall of smoke.
33:52All we could see ahead was blackness about 200 metres from where we were stopped.
33:58It was just completely dark.
34:01We presume that it was just lack of lighting, but it actually turned out to be the smoke from the
34:07fire.
34:09Seven minutes from disaster, data gathered from the sensors in the tunnel revealed that in these minutes smoke travels 800
34:16metres over the 25 gridlocked vehicles.
34:19The smoke travels at 4.5 metres per second. That's more than 16 kilometres per hour.
34:26Creating a sudden loss of visibility down to half a metre, it means the trapped drivers have only seconds to
34:32decide whether to try to reach safety of a refuge or remain in their vehicles.
34:37People probably believe that they're safe in their vehicle, that the smoke is not going to be too much of
34:43a problem.
34:44That the fire will be brought under control and they might as well stay in their car.
34:56Four minutes to go.
34:58In the middle of the smoke, four cars do attempt to turn round.
35:03The tunnel is wide enough, so why don't they make it?
35:10Experts know that car engines need oxygen to work.
35:17The fire is consuming the oxygen and replacing it with carbon monoxide.
35:22Starved of oxygen, the vehicle's engines splutter and die.
35:26There's no way out.
35:28The fate for those who abandon their vehicles is equally bleak.
35:33They're overcome by smoke and other toxic gases before they reach the safe areas.
35:44Analysis of the scene reveals that the smoke contains cyanide, a gas that no one can survive.
35:53The smoke fills the French half of the tunnel so rapidly that none of the 38 trapped people stands a
35:59chance.
36:01It's impossible for even the fittest individual to outrun.
36:16Fourteen minutes after the lorry enters the tunnel, everyone in the tail bank behind the truck has perished.
36:29Investigators now turn their attention to why the deadly smoke moves towards France.
36:34Normally, airflow in the tunnel is the other way, towards Italy.
36:38They discover that weather conditions play a key role.
36:41The day of the fire, there were rather unusual weather conditions.
36:47That happened maybe 20 days a year with a wind going from Italy to France.
36:56And this airflow clearly brought smoke towards France.
37:03But Lacroix is not convinced this is the only cause.
37:07He knows the tunnel operators can also dramatically affect the airflow using the tunnel's ventilation system.
37:16Gigantic fans in plant rooms at both ends enable the operators to supply or extract air through ducts running beneath
37:23the road.
37:25Normal operation requires ducts to supply air.
37:28But in the event of fire, duct 5 is supposed to be set to remove the smoke.
37:34Did operators carry out the correct emergency procedure?
37:38John Martinetti has studied the official reports and knows the tunnel inside out.
37:42He's shocked by what he learns.
37:45When the fire occurred, on the Italian side, according to the reports, the Italian operator blew fresh air in instead
37:52of extracting it.
38:01The Italian tunnel operator sees motorists attempting to turn around.
38:06To aid their escape, he adjusts the ventilation settings and pumps in fresh air.
38:14The disruption of normal airflow plays a major role in the disaster.
38:19Although the air blown in from Italy undoubtedly saves some lives, including John Whitby's.
38:33I realized how lucky I was.
38:3890% of the time the smoke would have come the other way to Italy and I wouldn't be here
38:46now.
38:46But the air being pumped in from Italy moves the smoke towards France at a terrifying speed.
38:53After enveloping the vehicles trapped behind the burning lorry, the smoke accelerates, now moving at 6 meters per second.
39:02On the French side, the whole French half of the tunnel was filled with smoke in little over half an
39:08hour.
39:14Approaching the fire was now impossible from either end of the tunnel.
39:19And all rescue attempts are called off.
39:30But a startling discovery is about to be made.
39:40A fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy becomes one of the worst road tunnel fires ever.
39:47A critical chain of events causes the disaster.
39:54And now investigators find the final link to that chain.
39:59Throughout the whole rescue, none of the emergency teams or tunnel operators were aware of the 38 trapped motorists.
40:07The closed circuit TV cameras were so quickly blocked by the smoke, it was impossible for the tunnel operators to
40:13see them.
40:14Information is limited.
40:16Emergency telephones only work intermittently.
40:19And sensors that detected smoke were not adequate.
40:23In fact, one was even turned off the day before the fire.
40:26Worse still, there was no communication between the French and Italian rescuers.
40:31Even firefighters become tracked.
40:35It was a totally uncoordinated effort.
40:38Tackling a fire of this severity seems to take everyone by surprise.
40:43One of the serious problems we discovered during the investigation was that over 34 years of operation, there had only
40:53been one fire drill that had involved public fire brigades.
40:59It might explain why it's more than three hours after the fire begins that the last of the trapped Italian
41:05firefighters, Glari and his team, are brought out through the underground ventilation ducts.
41:10They were absolutely black.
41:14You couldn't see the colour of the helmets or the uniforms, you couldn't see the colour of the fire engines.
41:20Everything that came out of that tunnel was black.
41:24It was a horrible, horrible sight really.
41:28The inferno rages for 53 hours before it's extinguished.
41:40I really hope that something is done to improve the safety of these tunnels.
41:47The disaster triggered an overhaul of safety procedures in the Mont Blanc tunnel.
41:52Today, maximum speed limits and minimum distances between vehicles are strictly enforced.
42:0317 previous fires in the tunnel were caused by lorries.
42:07But now, sophisticated thermal sensors at each entrance scan all lorries to detect dangerous heat emissions before they enter the
42:14tunnel.
42:21The tunnel operators have gone a long way to correct the mistakes.
42:29Many changes have been made regarding safety in the Mont Blanc tunnel.
42:34Probably one of the most important things is that now there is only one operator and using one single control
42:44centre.
42:46They stage regular fire and evacuation drills.
42:54The refuges are now pressurised and fitted with a video link to the control room.
43:07Staircases now connect them directly to evacuation channels below the road.
43:17There is now a firefighting team permanently based in the centre of the tunnel.
43:25And fire trucks are equipped with heat-seeking systems so that they can locate people in zero visibility.
43:35March 24, 1999 provided clues that may save lives in the future.
43:42But it's small consolation for relatives of the people who died in the tunnel.
43:47Including one firefighter who died from his injuries later.
43:55Xavier Chantalan will never be the same.
44:01I lost my mother-in-law, her daughter, my wife's sister and also her fiancée.
44:09They had all been staying with us on holiday.
44:13For relatives of the victims, like Xavier, there are still many unanswered questions regarding the final moments of those loved
44:20ones lost inside the tunnel.
44:27We still do not know for sure how they died.
44:30I am sure I do not need to describe the horrific images I have in my head.
44:35People running about on fire or collapsing, trying to get out.
44:40You think of everything.
44:43The Mont Blanc Tunnel fire and its critical chain of events reveals the dangers of deep road tunnels.
44:53On that day, a white Volvo truck enters the tunnel.
44:57A small fire under the cab gives off a stream of white smoke.
45:03The lorry stops.
45:05More air reaches the fire, causing it to erupt.
45:12The ordinary cargo of margarine turns deadly, creating a fire with the same potential as a 30,000 litre fuel
45:19tanker.
45:26The unusual weather conditions and incorrect use of the tunnel's ventilation system creates a wall of smoke that quickly envelops
45:3338 trapped motorists, leaving them no chance of survival.
45:39But was this critical chain of events unique?
45:47I think there will be another fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
45:51Tomorrow, in six months, a year.
45:54But the emergency services are better adapted today than they were at the time of the disaster.
46:01But there will be another fire.
46:08Is another Mont Blanc disaster possible somewhere in the world?
46:11Yes, it is.
46:13And it's perhaps only a matter of time.
46:19But until it happens, millions of vehicles continue to travel through road traffic tunnels every day, in safety.
46:42But it's also a town of buildings, a lot of people continue to travel through the road as well as
46:44a deputy.
46:44The fire would get an army of the air is already quite so far.
46:44So you know, there are no forces in the wind that are going to be destroyed.
46:45But the sea is not this way.
46:46So you know.
46:48You can tell me about to go to your tail is never gonna be so intense.
46:48So that's a matter of fact.
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