News

The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser

25 September 2008

The most recent fire in the Channel Tunnel caused all the inconvenience and disruption we’ve come to expect in Dover every time there’s an interruption or slow down of traffic across the Channel.

The fire damage is severe and it’s going to result in reduced Euro Star and shuttle passages for months to come. – but it could have been a lot worse and thankfully there was no loss of life.

The 1996 tunnel fire also caused major damage and months of disruption but there was no loss of life in that inferno either. We have yet to learn the precise cause of this latest incident but what we do know already is that in this fire and in the earlier outbreak the fires started in heavy goods vehicles carried in open slatted freight wagons – and there lies the problem.

Way back in 1987 when I was a Parliamentary Agent on the Channel Tunnel Bill, those of us who were opposing elements of the fixed link, fought hard for stricter safety standards in the system and in particular we were worried about the use of open sided freight shuttles.

There was a large lobby of opposition to these wagons but most importantly, the Fire Brigades Union went to some lengths attempting to convince Eurotunnel and the Inter-Governmental Safety Authority that all the shuttle wagons should be of the closed design.

Our opposition was based on simple and fundamental reasons. Everyone knows that HGVs and their cargoes can overheat and ignite from time to time. The incidents are relatively rare enough and when they take place on our highways, they can be isolated and contained without much consequential damage.

When such fires happen in the Channel Tunnel system it is a very different matter and when the eruption takes place in an open sided train speeding through a confined tube of concrete it’s pretty obvious that the smallest spark or heat source will be fanned into an inferno in the shortest of time and that the potential for the fire to spread to other vehicles is great.

When all the early predictions came true and the 1996 burn-out happened, the fire fighter’s union again protested and called for a re-design of the freight shuttles. They described the difficult and dangerous conditions they had to deal with deep down in the confines of the tunnel and they told us about the exceptionally high temperatures they recorded in the vicinity of the blaze.

Investigations are now taking place to discover the cause of the latest fire and arrangements are in hand to remove the burned out shuttles, repair the linings and restore all the services.

It’s doubtful which will take longer – bringing the damaged tunnel back into service or publishing the findings of the investigators report. Either way, let’s hope that this time the Safety Commissioners will listen to voices of the professionals and ban the use of open sided shuttles in the Channel Tunnel.