Tunnels without fire safety equipment
Alarming vulnerabilities identified in key areas of the country’s railways network
Fire Service officials and employees of the Greek Railways Organization (OSE) have come up with worrying findings regarding fire safety in tunnels on the country’s railway network, Kathimerini understands.
Inspections have revealed the absence of fire safety equipment. Also, in some cases the ventilation systems do not work, while no pathway has been provided for firefighters to access them. In other words, in the event of a fire on a train in a tunnel, it is extremely likely that there will be no fire safety equipment there, firefighting vehicles and forces will be unable to reach the site and the smoke extraction systems will not be operational.
The conclusions of these inspections, which Kathimerini has seen, were the result of joint autopsies by Fire Service and employees of OSE in the tunnels where passenger and commercial trains pass through in recent months, before the deadly Tempe accident in northern Greece on February 28.
According to reports, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the minister responsible, George Gerapetritis, are aware of the problem.
According to well-informed sources, autopsies on the tunnels in the railway network started about a year ago and by the beginning of January, 15 out of 18 tunnels longer than a kilometer had been inspected.
An indication of the potential for disaster was given in July 2015, when a fire in a freight train about 1,000 meters from the exit of the Tempe tunnel and it became apparent that the water supply and ventilation systems were out of order.
After a complaint made at the time by the Thessaly Fire Service Employees’ Union, it emerged that the problem was already known after an exercise carried out by the EMAK search and rescue team in 2010 without anything ever being done to address the issue. The problems were not only not addressed but remain 13 years later.
“If it had been a passenger train, would we have had casualties? What needs to be done so that some officials finally respect the safety of the citizens who pay for transport projects in gold?” said a statement by the fire service unionist.
Given the above, the answer to the question that has been asked in recent days, “What would have happened if the collision of the two trains on the night of February 28 had taken place inside and not outside the Tempe tunnel?” is rather obvious.
