BY PETE CLIFFORD

LONDON - "I think that another minute or two and everyone would have been dead in that train" said lorry (truck) driver John Harvey, a survivor of the Channel Tunnel fire November 18.

The fire was on a freight train 11 miles into the world's longest undersea tunnel, between France and England. It began on wagons containing freight lorries at the rear of the train. Within minutes toxic smoke swept the length of the train towards the compartment containing 31 lorry drivers. Temperatures reached 1000'C, leaving wagons welded to the track. Nineteen people were treated at hospitals from the blaze.

Harvey's statement contrasts sharply with that of Alain Bertrand, Eurotunnel's operations director, who initially claimed, "Existing safety procedures have worked pretty well."

Within a few days, however Eurotunnel management was forced to admit that they had to fall back on their third, last ditch option for coping with fires. The first option was that the train driver should continue a further 20 miles to the exit on the English side, relying on the ventilation system to prevent the spread of the fire or smoke. This was impossible under the circumstances. In that case, the passenger carriage and front locomotive should have automatically uncoupled from the rest of the train; a power failure prevented this.

The third option was then used. The train crew led the passengers off the train to a central service tunnel, which was sealed from the effects of smoke. This took some 20 minutes. From there they were put on a train in the second tunnel and evacuated.

Bertrand had to admit that the fire had been "very serious." Two Eurostar passenger trains, two tourist shuttles, and two lorry shuttles were in the tunnel at the time.

One survivor, Ian Edwards, explained that the smoke "just started getting thicker and thicker. People were coughing and choking and some were vomiting....We all genuinely thought we were goners." Edwards and other drivers were only able to breathe through paper towels soaked in water; he criticized the lack of oxygen equipment and sprinkler systems.

The fire, which took nearly 14 hours to put out, damaged at least 600 meters of the tunnel. The concrete lining was scorched, miles of power cables were destroyed, and a section of the track buckled beyond repair. The fire destroyed the rear locomotive and nine lorries. Train's design helped fire spread
Safety experts and the Fire Brigade Union are blaming the design of the wagons used to carry lorries as being responsible for the fire spreading so rapidly. Unlike the trains that carry cars and smaller freight lorries, which are enclosed and have a fire door between every four vehicles, these trains have semi-open wagons. Drivers travel in a separate compartment at the front of the train.

An article in the November 20 London Times described how safety officials insisted that semi-open wagons presented an unacceptable risk, especially if one caught fire and a free flow of air spread the fire. But Eurotunnel had already ordered the shuttles from the designer and pressed for the semi-open wagons because they would be lighter and able to carry lorries of up to 44 tons at a faster speed and lower cost than the cross- channel ferries. The Times writer concluded that "the safety authority, under the threat of legal action from Eurotunnel, abandoned its better judgment."

The Fire Brigades Union has also criticized the car trains, noting that passengers stay in their cars for the 35-minute journey. The union says this opens them to the danger of car fires from electrical faults. There would be less of a danger if passengers traveled separately, but it would add to the travel time.

Eurotunnel is currently negotiating with banks over its 8.8 [$US 14.5] billion debt. It is estimated it will make the second largest corporate loss ever in the UK, according to the Financial Times.

When the Channel Tunnel was opened two years ago, the tunnel companies claimed it was the eighth wonder of the world. They aimed to take the bulk of the trade from the ferries, especially in the light of the 1987 Zeebrugge ferry disaster when 188 people drowned due to the car ferry's bow doors still being open as it left the port.

Since the opening of the tunnel two years ago, over 50 percent of vehicles travel through it rather than on the ferries, and the airlines report a 30 percent decline in trade, mainly lost to the passenger train company Eurostar. Behind this is a massive price war between those competing for the channel traffic. To cut costs the ferry companies have made substantial lay-offs, and Eurotunnel was planning to save 30m through redundancies (layoffs).

Eurostar too was seeking a 10 percent cut in its wage bill through redundancies and increased workload. It became a fully private corporation in May 1996. London and Continental, Eurostar's owners, aim to achieve profitability by 1998, three years ahead of schedule. This, they say, will aid funding their main enterprise - a new rail link from London to the tunnel. When they bought the rights to this for 3 billion, Eurostar and other assets worth 5.7 billion were thrown in as a sweetener by the government. Drive for profits threatens safety
It is this drive for profits fueled by the competition between the ferry companies, airlines, and tunnel companies that leads to unsafe travel conditions. The Times reported that Eurotunnel had expected a fire once a year. "Basically we were expecting a fire from day one," the paper cited one Eurotunnel spokesperson as saying.

Nor is this danger restricted to the tunnel. This was brought home in the days following the fire, when a near miss was reported over Heathrow airport and the entire London underground system was brought to a standstill by an electrical fault.

The Times noted that more "elaborate precautions" were made to protect the tunnel against "terrorist threats" than against the kind of fire that occurred. Two days after the fire, Eurotunnel was running enclosed wagon trains with freight along the undamaged tunnel and confirmed plans to purchase another 72 semi-open wagons. Eurostar aimed to resume its passenger trains in the coming week without the damaged tunnel being totally repaired and running.

The Channel Tunnel safety authority announced November 19 it was launching an inquiry into the fire, however its deliberations will be in secret. In response, the Fire Brigades Union has called for a full public inquiry. Both of the main rail unions in the UK - the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and the drivers union ASLEF - have made no statement about the fire.

At a meeting of Eurostar RMT members, though, one worker raised, "If the Consumers Association and all kinds of safety bodies can have something to say, why can't the rail unions." The union branch decided to press the RMT to issue a statement about the fire. Before and after the meeting, several workers discussed how it is only workers and their unions that can organize the fight for safety that's needed.

Pete Clifford is a member of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union.  
 
 
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