The severity of the yesterday’s fire inside the Channel Tunnel means it is likely that services will continue to suffer disruption and delays for some time to come. The fire was brought under control this morning some 16 hours after it broke out, when a lorry on board a train caught fire around seven miles from the French entrance to the tunnel.
32 passengers, mostly lorry drivers, were quickly evacuated through the service tunnel but 14 of these were taken to hospital, some suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation. Up to 300 French and British firefighters tackled the blaze, which reached around 10000C in cramped conditions with visibility sometimes down to zero.
According to the Guardian online, there are unconfirmed reports that the blaze destroyed six carriages and one locomotive, as the fire spread to other lorries. This is more than the damage caused by a fire in 1996, which took six months to repair and involved train services using just one bore of the tunnel in the meantime.
Both Eurostar and EuroTunnel services remain suspended, stranding thousands of passengers and freight drivers. Latest reports say the tunnel is not expected to start operating again until Friday evening or Saturday morning at the earliest.
