The world of snowsports is still reeling
from the shock of the tragic accident in Kaprun on Saturday.
Up to 170 people were killed when
a fire engulfed an Austrian funicular train carrying skiers
up to the Kitzsteinerhorn Glacier at Kaprun.
At this stage there is no firm indication
of how the fire may have started although Austria has announced
a criminal investigation into the tragedy. There was speculation
that the blaze may have been started by an electrical fault.
The inferno, which reached temperatures of more than 1000
C, virtually vaporised the train.
Hospital staff in the town of Zell
am See said they had treated up to 18 survivors, including
a number who had managed to escape thanks to the heroic
efforts of an unidentified man who managed to smash a rear
window on the train with a ski pole.
The passengers perished when the train
transporting them to a glacier skiing area caught fire,
trapping them inside the smoke-filled tunnel. Rescue co-ordinators
said last night that many of the victims had apparently
managed to escape from the compartment, but were quickly
overcome by acrid smoke as they tried to flee by running
upward on narrow stairs leading out of the tunnel.
Manfred Muller, head of cable car
technical operations, said those who survived apparently
ran the opposite way, thus evading most of the smoke being
blown upward by strong drafts pushing through the tunnel.
Rescuers say the narrowness and steepness of the tunnel
- which is used by tens of thousands of skiers from across
Europe, including British holidaymakers - transformed it
into a 'giant chimney', sucking in air to fuel the flames.
The resulting fire was so intense
that when rescuers finally reached the site, only the train's
twisted metal base remained. 'Two railway workers came directly
from the tunnel and told us all they had found was the metal
base of the train,' said state governor Franz Schuasberger.
'Everything else was burnt out. We have to deduce the sad
news that none of the passengers survived.'
Three skiers who were waiting in
a passenger area at the top of the tunnel also died from
smoke inhalation. Also among the dead was the cable car
attendant in the otherwise empty car returning down the
mountain.
The tragedy unfortunately does raise
serious questions about fire safety in Europe's road and
rail tunnels. Last year, 40 people died in an inferno in
the Mont Blanc road tunnel between France and Italy that
started when a truck caught fire. Again the ferocity of
the fire was blamed on the tunnel's ventilation.
Yesterday's fire is believed to have
started in the front section of the train after one of the
cables that pull the train up the mountain snapped, apparently
starting the blaze beneath the train. Mueller, the head
of technical operations for the underground cable car system,
said the car operator was told to open all doors in the
five to 10 minutes that elapsed between the sounding of
an alarm and the sudden break of radio contact with the
cable car attendant. He said he was mystified by how a fire
could have started. The funicular had been inspected in
September by safety inspectors who gave it a clean bill
of health.
Salzburg Red Cross commander Gerhard
Huber said there were between 150 and 170 victims, of whom
half were Austrians. Among those missing were 23 Americans,
including two children, from a ski club at the US military's
Leighton Barracks in Würzburg, Germany.
'The fire engulfed two carriages
in the middle of the tunnel,' said Huber. 'It was impossible
for rescuers to reach them quickly. This is a truly shocking
and horrific disaster.' Engineer
Klaus Eisenkolb, who has inspected the train in the past,
said that it was fitted with safety systems to bring the
vehicle to an immediate halt if one of the cables snapped.
'It is not supposed to burn because the materials used are
fire-resistant,' he added. But
burn it did, releasing poisonous fumes which quickly overcame
the trapped skiers as temperatures soared to several hundred
degrees.
Eyewitness Christian Wakolbinger described
how the smoke had even affected people in the mountain station
at the top of the railway, which is where three of the fatalities
are believed to have occurred. 'The smoke swept up the tunnel
so quickly that some people in the Alpine Centre were affected
by smoke poisoning,' he said.
The tunnel was opened in 1974 with
the present train installed in 1994.
(Story from Guardian
Unlimited)
