Fire safety in the Channel Tunnel came under the spotlight last weekend on BBC1’s Politics Show in the South East.
Interviewed on the show, David Sugden, chairman of the Passive Fire Protection Federation criticised Euro Tunnel’s refusal so far to enclose freight wagons which use the tunnel, so providing an element of compartmentation in the event of a fire breaking out. While declining to brand the tunnel as unsafe, he said that such measures – together with appropriate on-board fire suppression systems – would help to avoid the occurrence of fires which have previously resulted in severe disruption to tunnel services.
“The cost to the infrastructure and to Euro Tunnel form the damage of fire can be avoided, he said. “If there is another fire in an open wagon, we could have the same 6-month delay.”
He countered Euro Tunnel’s suggestions that such remedial work would be too expensive of complex, and said that the enclosure of wagons had been on the agenda after the first fire in 1996.
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