Channel Tunnel fire smoulders, traffic still halted

A fire in the Channel Tunnel was brought under control early on Friday, more than 12 hours after the blaze took hold on a freight train, paralysing rail traffic between Britain and the continent.

Eurotunnel, the company that operates the undersea rail link, said it hoped some passenger services could resume on Friday evening, but local officials in northern France thought trains would not run again until Saturday at the earliest.

No-one was killed in the fire, which turned one of the two main tunnel shafts into a smoking inferno and destroyed a train shuttle carrying lorries from Britain to France.

Firemen from both sides of the Channel worked through the night to douse the flames. Temperatures reached 1,000 Celsius (1,832 Fahrenheit) while smoke reduced visibility to zero.

"The fire has been brought under control. We are in a phase of cooling down residual fires around the main fire," local official Gerard Gavory said from the port city of Calais.

"We cannot yet say when it might be reopened. Not before tonight and more likely tomorrow morning," he added.

Magistrates have opened an investigation into the fire, which officials initially said started on one of the lorries loaded on the regular freight service.

SMASHING WINDOWS

Eurotunnel's CEO Jacques Gounon told French radio there was "nothing to indicate" the fire was started deliberately.

He said some of the truck drivers who were travelling in a sealed compartment in the shuttle had to smash windows to escape, confirming an eyewitness account in the French press.

"The door of our carriage was locked. It was impossible to open it. We saved ourselves by breaking a window with a hammer," Belgian truck driver Patrick Lejein told daily Le Parisien.

"A truck was on fire and there was a series of explosions. There were about 20. Everything was exploding around us -- tyres, fuel tanks and then there was this smoke which stopped us seeing and breathing properly," he added.

Six people were taken to hospital after inhaling fumes and eight others suffered cuts and bruises.

Any prolonged disruption to services would be a major blow for Eurotunnel, which posted its first profit only last year.

Shares in the company were barely changed at 9.02 euros at 0950 GMT, recovering from a three percent fall when trading opened on the Paris stock market.

About 40,000 people a day use the tunnel to travel between Britain and continental Europe and thousands of passengers were left stranded. Huge queues of lorries built up on either side of the Channel, while some drivers switched to nearby ferries.

Opened in 1994, the Channel Tunnel is 51 km (32 miles) long, including a 38 km (24 mile) stretch that runs some 40 metres under the sea. It is the longest undersea tunnel in the world.

There have been two previous blazes in the tunnel, both involving transported lorries.

In November 1996, a truck caught fire causing one of the two main tunnels to be closed for a month and freight traffic to be halted for seven months. In August 2006, there was another blaze on a truck, but there was no serious damage done.