Nikki has tried it

Preventing tunnel fires from becoming death traps

Visibility is still relatively good in this picture. When the tunnel is full of artificial smoke, it becomes difficult to even see your own hand in front of your eyes.

(Bild: Birbaumer Johanna, Krone KREATIV)

When a fire breaks out in a tunnel, every move has to be right! "Krone" editor Nicole Greiderer accompanied firefighters on an exercise at the Tyrolean State Fire Brigade School in Telfs and got tips on how to react in an emergency.

I only see white. Thick (artificial) smoke reflects the light of my lamp. Only the light strips on the firefighters' jackets and the glow of the burning vehicles provide orientation. "Feel along the wall or cars," I'm advised by training supervisor Gerhard Schöpf. I can barely see the ground. I just hope I don't stumble. Now the hose has snagged somewhere.

I can barely hear my team partner Daniel under his breathing mask. So he uses his arms to tell me what to do. Everyone else around me knows on their own.

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A fire in a tunnel is not a normal operation
The two-day tunnel training courses at the provincial fire department school in Telfs are for those who have to keep calm when others panic. Here, fires in road and rail tunnels are simulated and managers are trained. "We are Austria's tunnel competence center," reports Gerhard Schöpf with pride. Firefighters from all over the country come here to acquire knowledge and bring it back to their communities.

After all, a standardized approach is essential in the event of a tunnel fire: "We also have tunnels that connect different federal states," explains Schöpf. And: "A tunnel is not a house. There are only two entrances and correspondingly long routes."

Rules of conduct

• If you find yourself in a burning tunnel in your car, the first thing to do is stay calm!
• If there is smoke, close the windows and switch to recirculated air: This way the air in the car will last at least 30 minutes, in the bus longer.
• Pay attention to information (via loudspeaker or car radio).
• If you can escape outside: First steer the car to the side so that emergency vehicles can get through.
• Fires are not inherently more dangerous in longer tunnels: they have good safety systems.

So how do you get emergency services in and rescued people out? Where are the connection points, how do you lay hoses so that they don't become tripping hazards? Potential trucks with hazardous materials on board and enormous heat build-up are further sources of risk. Above all, because the number of people affected by a tunnel fire can be very large - and often completely unclear.

It is not for nothing that the firefighters also learn how to evacuate a bus. They not only practise technical skills, but also how to deal with pure humanity: the father who doesn't want to part with his children, the passenger who causes everyone else to panic - "there's nothing that doesn't exist".

Head of training Gerhard Schöpf helps editor Nicole Greiderer put on the heavy breathing apparatus.

(Bild: Birbaumer Johanna)

"If the blanket gets too hot, it falls on our heads"
Meanwhile, I learn how to extinguish a fire. It's actually about a burning panel van, but Daniel keeps aiming at the tunnel ceiling: "If the concrete gets too hot, it will fall!"

Holding and steering the hose against the recoil is not so easy. I can't feel the heat of the fire. Nor do I feel the water dripping from the ceiling. Instead, sweat runs down my face under my breathing mask.

"You're 30 kilos heavier with all this equipment," Schöpf explained to me. That's how I move: it feels like I'm moving in slow motion. As I bend down to grab the stretcher with which I'm supposed to "evacuate" a dummy, I'm surprised that I don't topple backwards.

In an emergency, human lives are at stake
When I finally take off my breathing mask, I'm pretty exhausted and secretly a bit glad that it's over for me. For the firefighters - many use vacation days for this training - it continues in the afternoon: "We intensify the exercise scenarios. With loudspeaker announcements, fire, rescuing people - the full program," promises Schöpf. He knows: "If they memorize how to act, they can also call it up in an emergency." So that they can save lives in an emergency.