Smoke control during the Channel Tunnel fire of 18 november 1996

This paper reports the technical analysis of smoke control during the Channel Tunnel fire of 18 November 1996. This analysis was based on evidence which included computer records of equipment operation and alarms, witness observations of smoke and analysis of engineering and procedural documents. This analysis demonstrated that smoke movements are critically dependent on the movement of trains, the operation of doors and dampers and the use of ventilators. It gave convincing illustration of some smoke effects which were probably not widely appreciated prior to the fire. These effects include the ability of the air's momentum to carry smoke forward of the train at the start of an incident, and the effectiveness of a transverse input of air from a cross-passage to produce a bubble of clearer conditions to allow evacuation.