Torgeir Naalsund was met by smoke when the fire brigade had an exercise in the Innfjord tunnel – news Møre og Romsdal – Local news, TV and radio

When the couple from Ålesund were going through the Innfjord tunnel in Rauma on Wednesday, they were greeted by thick smoke. They were sure that there was a fire in the seven kilometer long tunnel. – You do not feel high in the hat when you only see a wall of smoke in front of you, says Torgeir Naalaund. The retired professional driver and his wife Vera were on their way from Ålesund to Lillestrøm. Naalsund backed out of the tunnel and so did other cars. He got out of the car and talked to a terrified mother of small children who also thought it was a tunnel fire. It turned out that it was the fire brigade that had exercises in the side tunnel. Torgeir and Vera Naalsund were on their way to Lillestrøm when they had a frightening experience in the tunnel in Rauma. Photo: Privat / news Had zero visibility Naalsund was told by a firefighter that it was safe to continue driving, but he did not think it was at all. – I only saw one and a half to two meters in front of me. I had to aim for the white stripe and the yellow stripe. I did not know if a car came against, says Naalsund. He does not mind that the fire brigade has exercises, but thinks they must then close the tunnel. He thinks it was unjustifiable to drive in and an accident could have happened. Sorry for the mistake There were 30 people from the Norwegian fire school who were to train for search and rescue in the tunnel fire this day. When they were about to open the gate from the main tunnel to let a car into the training area, the gate got stuck. Thus, the main tunnel became full of white practice smoke. – We strongly regret that this happened. We closed the tunnel as quickly as possible, says chief engineer Ole Pedro Myklebostad in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. Myklebostad has no problem understanding that it was scary for all the cars that were already in the tunnel. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has now changed its routines. – We will never practice in this side tunnel again. It will end after this incident here, says Myklebostad. The Innfjord tunnel is almost 7 kilometers long. Photo: Norwegian Public Roads Administration



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