Fire in Frejus Tunnel Kills TwoTwo people died on Saturday 4th June, 2005 when a truck carrying tyres caught fire inside the 12.9 km-long 9 m-wide Frejus tunnel, shutting off a major route under the Alps between France and Italy. French road authorities said it had been closed at 6:45 p.m. and would remain shut indefinitely. The truck coming from France stopped after 5 km in the tunnel. A smoke plug formed and, pushed by the wind, moved towards Italy. The tunnel then behaved like a chimney loaded with hot smoke. A second truck carrying mozzarella cheese, distant from the first some 100 metres, burst into flames, then another carrying scrap 100 m farther, and these hot gases ended up setting fire to a truck carrying toxic glue, located 450 m behind. Three Italian firefighting vehicles were also lost in the tunnel. The French firefighters managed to extinguish the trucks one after the other as well as the cabin of the truck carrying glue, before the fire had propagated to the toxic cargo. Video surveillance cameras show the tyre truck catching fire after a leak of diesel fuel, SITAF said. The tunnel is operated by SITAF in Italy and SFTRF on the French side. Visit www.sitaf.it and www.tunneldufrejus.com180 firemen were mobilised with 40 vehicles. They had to battle temperatures of 600°C and took about six hours to put out the fire. The body of the first victim was recovered in a shelter after it was seen on a video surveillance camera. The body of a second victim was later found near the shelter on the French side of the tunnel where the first body was discovered. The two victims, Martin Vican and Pavol Blanarovic, are Slovak. They were the drivers of the truck carrying scrap. Twenty-one people, including ten firefighters, were treated for smoke inhalation.France's newly appointed transport minister Dominique Perben travelled to the tunnel on Sunday morning before meeting his Italian counterpart, Pietro Lunardi, on the Italian side. After paying tribute to the victims and praising the efficiency of the rescuers, Perben made it clear that without the "important" reinforcement of security in the Frejus tunnel, as a result of the Mont Blanc tunnel disaster, the death toll caused by the fire could have been much higher. "Fortunately", these measures have been adopted, stressed the minister, reminding that EUR56 million had been invested to improve alarm devices and safety shelters. Click fr/47. Lunardi also praised the work of emergency crews, saying coordination between the Italian and French firefighters had been "great" and that "this accident will help improve the level of security". He said security had been increased in the Frejus tunnel after the Mont Blanc tunnel fire, but "it can be increased" further.The Frejus tunnel links Modane in France and Bardonecchia in Italy and is the major road connection between Lyon and Turin. It runs close to the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics in the Italian Alps. Some 2 million vehicles pass through it each year. The tunnel opened in 1980 but has come under increasing strain in handling the growing amount of trans-Alpine traffic. The French and Italian transport ministers, then Gilles de Robien and Pietro Lunardi, met in April to discuss plans to build a second tunnel alongside the first, with a smaller gallery between the two to allow for evacuation in case of fire. The tragedy comes six years after 39 people were killed in a fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel, about 100 km north of Frejus. A verdict in the trial over the 1999 Mont Blanc blaze is expected to be handed down on 27th July. Read E-News Weekly 18/2005. The Frejus fire has revived the controversy on the security of such tunnels and the urgent necessity to find alternatives to the high traffic of trucks across the Alps. At the moment, 80% of the freight traffic between France and Italy is on roads. The project for a high speed and high capacity railway connection between Lyon and Turin must be speeded up. This project requires the construction of a 52 km base tunnel. 23/05. A billboard reading ' tunnel closure due to fire' is seen outside the Italian side of the Frejus tunnel near Bardonecchia, northern Italy.