“I am a survivor of the fire in the Gudvanga Tunnel in August 2013, and experienced that if I didn’t do something, my wife, our three daughters and I would die.” This is how Einar Morland (58) starts his letter to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Read the entire letter at the bottom of the case. Morland and his wife Laila are shocked that over 200 Norwegian tunnels still have uncovered PE foam. PE foam is highly flammable and experts say that it works like “gasoline in solid form”. The foam is heavy and easy to ignite, but there will be an explosive fire with highly toxic gases if it first starts to burn. TUNNEL FIRE: 70 people were inside the Gudvanga tunnel in Sogn when it started to burn in August 2013. Five of them were Laila and Einar Morland and their three children. The couple say they would not have survived if there was uncovered PE foam in the tunnel. Photo: Voss fire service Fears new big fire Last Christmas, six people died and 29 were injured in a tunnel fire in South Korea. Norwegian experts have concluded that precisely flammable material in the tunnel contributed to the fire being so powerful. Morland is certain that he and his family would not be alive today if there had been uncovered PE foam in the Gudvanga tunnel. – We survived by sheer luck. It was a lorry without cargo that caught fire. If it had been a lorry with a load, or uncovered PE foam, the fire would have had much more energy. 70 people were rescued from the tunnel. Many suffered serious smoke damage, but no one died. FIRE HAZARD: Here we see an area with uncovered PE foam in the Naustdal tunnel on national highway 5 between Førde and Florø. Photo: Bård Siem / news The Norwegian Automobile Association (NAF) reacts to the fact that there are still many fire-hazardous tunnels in Norway. – The minister and the government must address this. Over several years, too little has been spent on maintenance and upgrading the tunnels, says press manager Ingunn Handagard. She points out that NOK 17.3 billion is required to make the tunnels on the national road network safe. In addition, the tunnels will be on county roads. Can’t promise a quick improvement The Prime Minister’s office confirms that they have received the letter, and refers to the Minister for Transport for further comment. Jon-Ivar Nygård (Ap) writes to news that the story of the Morland family makes an impression, but shows that the tunnels are safer today than when there was a fire in the Gudvanga tunnel in 2013. – Tunnel safety is an area that has been focused on for several years the improvement program of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, and this will continue until 2023. The head of the Storting’s transport committee, Erling Sande (Sp), cannot promise that the PE foam will be covered immediately. – It is quite clear that fires in tunnels are serious incidents. Precisely for this reason, large funds are used to make it safer to drive in tunnels, he says. Sande will request an overview from the Ministry of Transport on the extent of unsafe PE foam in Norwegian tunnels. – I also want to know how the professionals in the ministry assess the risk of PE foam compared to other risks in traffic. – But don’t you want to order the Norwegian Road Administration and the county municipalities to cover the flammable foam? – No, in the first instance it is right to get this overview. Then we can conclude after that, says Sande. NO LEGISLATION: The leader of the Storting’s transport committee, Erling Sande (Sp), will ask professionals in the Ministry of Transport to assess the risk of uncovered PE foam in tunnels against other risks in traffic. Photo: Bård Siem / news Høgre demands action Storting representative Liv Kari Eskeland (H) in the Transport and Communications Committee is not satisfied with the red-green government’s efforts. – We expect the government to take the necessary measures to secure tunnels with flammable material, she says. – But the blue party led by Høgre sat in power for eight years, why didn’t they secure the 200 fire-dangerous tunnels? – Measures have been taken in the tunnels most at risk. But the fire in South Korea has probably provided additional knowledge, and it would be natural to take a new review to assess the remaining 200 tunnels, says Eskeland. She adds that a program must be drawn up to upgrade the 200 tunnels. NEW FIRE: Also in March 2019, there was a severe fire in the Gudvanga tunnel in Sogn when a wagon train caught fire. Fortunately, there was no unsafe PE foam in the tunnel, so the fire did not spread. Photo: Police Frustrated county mayor County mayor in Vestland, Jon Askeland (Sp), admits that the situation is challenging. With 29 county road tunnels with uncovered PE foam, Vestland tops the list. – It is disappointing that we have not had the finances to secure all the tunnels. It’s also disappointing that we don’t have enough fall protection funds and that we don’t have enough money to secure our bridges, he says. Askeland points out that the county roads are very underfunded compared to the national roads. – We have four times as many county roads as national roads in this country, but the spending on national roads is five times greater. Therefore, we have not been able to equip all the tunnels. Unfortunately, that is the situation, he says. EXPLOSIVE FIRE: PE foam is burning here in the Runehamar tunnel near Åndalsnes. The tunnel is used by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to test tunnel fires. Photo: RISE Fire Research Used for 40 years PE foam has been used as water and frost protection in Norwegian road tunnels for 40 years. From 1997, it was required that the foam be covered with 8 cm of shotcrete, due to the fire hazard. But the requirement only applied to new tunnels. Therefore, there are still many tunnels with uncovered or poorly covered PE foam. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s justification for the fact that it has taken a long time to cover the flammable foam is that the work is very extensive. Among other things, both reinforcing mesh and shotcrete must be used. HOSPITAL: Einar Morland in hospital in Voss after the fire in the Gudvanga tunnel in August 2013. Photo: Private Einar Morland does not buy this explanation. – Covering with shotcrete and reinforcement is a well-known technology in Norway. It’s just a matter of getting it done, he says. Here is the letter to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre Dear Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre I am a survivor of the fire in the Gudvanga tunnel in August 2013, and experienced that if I did not do anything, my wife, our three daughters and I would die. But it was insanely difficult to get out through the 8 kilometer tunnel. There was nothing in the tunnel that had been arranged for self-rescue. On the contrary, there were many things that made self-rescue difficult. We survived by pure luck, it was an empty truck that burned. There was little energy in the fire. If there had been a lorry with a load, or, for that matter, a field of uncovered PE foam (“gasoline in solid form”), then the amount of energy in the fire would have been much greater. In this type of fire, the experts estimate that everyone closer than a couple of kilometers from the fire will die. Safe escape rooms would have given them an opportunity to survive. We spent almost 1 hour driving 2.5 kilometers away from the fire, without seeing anything in pitch darkness and smoke. If the fire had been of high energy, my wife, our three daughters, myself, the six people we picked up walking in the darkness and smoke and many tens of others would have perished and we would have been named on a memorial plaque about the biggest tunnel fire in Norwegian history. In an article on news on 6 August 2013, the day after the fire in the Gudvanga tunnel, it was stated: “200 tunnels have uncovered PE foam”. Now, almost 10 years later, we have the same headline. Still 200 tunnels that have uncovered PE foam. At the time, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg went out in the media with the message that Norwegian tunnels are safe, to our boundless astonishment. Now is the time for the Prime Minister to be honest and tell us, who survived by sheer luck, as well as all road users in Norway, that there are actually tunnels in Norway that are unsafe and dangerous. And especially; to put in place measures that allow for self-rescue to be arranged as well as possible, also in the event of severe tunnel fires. We who survived the fire in 2013 deserve that, and all road users in Norway deserve that. Kind regards, Einar Morland
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Asks the prime minister to secure fire-dangerous tunnels – news Vestland
