BY THE end of the year, trains shuttling trucks through the Channel Tunnel will carry a novel water misting system that can automatically extinguish any fires that break out.
The system, the first in Europe, is designed to prevent a catastrophic fire like the one that broke out in November 1996 on a train carrying trucks through the tunnel. Putting out the fire took nearly seven hours, endangering the lives of dozens of firefighters and truck drivers and severely damaging the tunnel. It was six months before the tunnel got back to normal operations.
The report of the official inquiry…
