19 January 2004

A French coach driver is this morning being hailed a hero - and not just by The Sun - after he saved 37 British skiers' lives when their coach caught fire.

According to report in most of today's papers, a fire broke out on the coach as it entered a mile-long tunnel near Chambery during a transfer to Courchevel.

Instead of panicking and stopping the coach, which experts say could have proved fatal, the driver drove through the tunnel with the passengers huddled together at the front, until it was safe for them to disembark.

The entire coach reportedly burst into flames just moments later and was apparently gutted by fire. "A blazing vehicle in a tunnel traps the heat, which can build up very quickly and travel through the tunnel faster", said a fire expert, quoted in the Daily Mail, "so these passengers have the driver to thank for losing nothing more than their luggage."

Unconfirmed reports suggest they may not even have lost this, as the rep allegedly then went back up the tunnel and collected what was left of guests' luggage.

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A veteran season worker recently contacted us to tell us about two other incidents:

"I can recall two other coach fires over the years. Around 1996 a Skiworld coach had an engine fire arriving at the Oasis (dire restaurant near Albertville if you've never had the pleasure of going there!). The fire spread quickly, but the rep went back on the coach to
rescue punters' bags etc.

And in the late 80s a Bladon Lines coach caught fire about 3kms before the Tignes dam - where the road twists and turns through that narrow bit. It was about midnight and the reps managed to retrieve all the luggage from the hold. However, what they did was basically just throw all the bags off the coach. Unfortunately, the bags generally went over the little wall/barrier and disappeared into the gorge with the Isere at the bottom. A whole load of us went back next day and clambered down to retrieve everything. Hence, BL were known as Blazin' Lines for a while!

Fortunately, nobody was hurt in either incident."

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