Yesterday morning, shortly before 6 a.m., a dramatic incident paralyzed the Fréjus Tunnel, on the French-Italian border. A heavy goods vehicle carrying auto parts suddenly caught fire while traveling toward Italy. The cause of the fire is believed to be overheating of the axles, a rare but feared phenomenon on this type of long-distance journey.
Inside the tunnel, around twenty trucks and two cars were trapped behind the burning vehicle. Despite the panic the situation could have caused, the Belarusian driver's composure prevented the worst. Armed with a fire extinguisher, he managed to contain the flames before emergency services arrived, thus limiting the material and human damage.
Italian firefighters, who were quickly dispatched to the scene, treated a person suffering from mild smoke inhalation. No serious injuries were reported, but the incident caused a complete traffic disruption for nearly three hours. The tunnel finally reopened to traffic around 8:20 a.m. after a thorough safety inspection.
This incident has raised renewed questions about safety in transalpine tunnels, particularly regarding thermal monitoring of heavy goods vehicles. Automatic detection devices already exist in some European tunnels, but their widespread use remains incomplete.
For drivers stuck in the tunnel, the wait was long and anxious. "We didn't know what was happening, we just saw smoke and waited for instructions," said an Italian truck driver reached by phone.
Fortunately, this mishap ended without drama, but it serves as a reminder of how much vigilance and responsiveness can make all the difference in this type of situation.