Thread by @ben_mossop

Not criticising a good deed, but there needs to be better education for drivers on how to respond to a vehicle #fires in road #tunnels. A 🧵

#firesafety #fireengineering #roadsafety #driving

https://twitter.com/johnfoster1969/status/1380546170326556672

Means of escape & access for the fire & rescue services are part of the design considerations for modern road tunnels.

For a single direction tunnel, the assumption is that drivers will stop before the fire & leave their vehicles, evacuating in the opposite direction.

It’s not a good idea to drive past the fire as smoke control systems will typically be designed to ventilate smoke in the direction of travel & protect the means of escape/firefighter access route.

Passing the fire can lead to you being trapped in hot smoke & unable to breath.

Escape routes will be available & should be signposted, or in some cases the expectation is that occupants will evacuate via the portal by which they entered the tunnel.

Bi-directional tunnels follow different engineering approaches but the basic principles remain the same.

Emergency points are usually provided & identified to enable occupants to report a fire to the infrastructure operator.

More modern tunnels usually have fire & smoke detection, incident detection, voice alarm, smoke control & fire suppression systems.

Driving past a vehicle on fire can put you, your passengers & firefighters at risk.

Drivers can be reluctant to abandon their vehicles but this is the safest approach & allows firefighters to focus on extinguishing the fire, not on rescuing you.

Once the fire is out, smoke has been ventilated & it’s safe to re-enter the tunnel then you will be allowed to collect your vehicle.

Some additional advice:

bit.ly/3taGxz1

bit.ly/3dOfx1T

Prior to reading this thread, did you already know what to do in the event of a road tunnel fire?

(Please RT)