Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Recurrent disasters with multiple casualties and important property loss occurred in the last decade in all types of traffic tunnels in Europe and Asia in particular, where existing and planned new tunnels are the largest in number and important for the economy. The aftermath is a new focus on fire safety issues in tunnels on behalf of different authorities, as shown here by a brief review of the European Research and Technological Framework program currently supported by the European Commission. The paper outlines that fire safety level in a tunnel clearly depends on a variety of human factors, other than the simple behavioral aspects of tunnel users confronted to the event of a fire. This is illustrated by facts reported from a number of past accidents in traffic tunnels, including the recent tragedy that took place in the Daegu metro in February last year