Summit Tunnel fire
Twelve of the fourteen construction shafts were left open to help vent smoke and steam from the locomotives that passed through it.[2] One day earlier on 3 December a train guard had been killed after a collision between a diesel multiple unit and parcels vans at Longsight also in Manchester.[1] At 05:50 on 20 December 1984, the train, carrying more than 1,000,000 litres (260,000 US gal) or 835 tonnes (920 short tons) of four-star petrol in thirteen tankers, entered the tunnel on the Yorkshire (north) side traveling at 40 miles per hour (64 km/h).The firefighters were saved because blast relief shafts 8 and 9 acted as flame vents (a function their designer never envisaged).As the walls warmed up and the air temperature in the tunnel rose, all 10 tankers discharged petrol vapour from their pressure relief valves.At the height of the fire, pillars of flame approximately 150 metres (490 ft) high rose from the shaft outlets on the hillside above.Air at this speed is capable of blowing around heavy items: hot projectiles made from tunnel lining (rather like lava bombs from a volcano) were cast out over the hillside.[1] At the Masons Arms public house in Todmorden, there is a small collection of photographs noting the fire, along with the statistics of the construction,[citation needed] and a quotation by George Stephenson, the tunnel's builder, who said, "I stake my reputation and my head that the tunnel will never fail so as to injure any human life".
Summit TunnelLancashireWest YorkshireManchester and Leeds RailwayBritish Raildangerous goodsLittleboroughTodmordenGreater ManchesterlocomotivesEcclesLongsightLittleborough and SaddleworthGeoffrey DickensHaverton HillTeessideGlazebrookWarringtonclass 47diesel locomotivetankerspetrolbearingjournal bearingdamaged axle boxballasttelephoneGreater Manchester Fire BrigadeWest Yorkshire Fire Brigadebreathing apparatusventilation shaftslava bombsvolcanoA6033 roadWalsdenRochdalepublic houseGeorge Stephensonpublic enquiryList of transportation firesDepartment of TransportHer Majesty's Stationery OfficeDouglas-Home, CharlesManchester Evening NewsWest Yorkshire Fire ServiceRailway accidents and incidentsPolmont rail accident, United KingdomWembley Central rail crash, United KingdomEccles rail crash, United KingdomApennine Base Tunnel bombing, ItalyRailway accidents and incidents in the United KingdomSloughGlasgow St EnochHall RoadWithamCharing CrossSalisburyGranthamElliot JunctionNewportBirminghamShrewsburyBournemouthBraunton RoadHawes JunctionPontypriddDitton JunctionChumhillAis GillIlfordQuintinshillSt Bedes JunctionBere FerrersLittle SalkeldAbermuleLythamParkgate & RawmarshHull ParagonSevenoaksDarlingtonGlasgow Queen StreetCharfieldWinwickBattersea ParkNorton FitzwarrenCatterick BridgeBallymacarrettKing's CrossBourne EndLichfieldDoncasterSouth CroydonGoswickWinsfordHarrow & WealdstoneStratfordIrk Valley JunctionSutton ColdfieldMiltonBarnesChapel-en-le-FrithLewishamDagenham EastEastbourneSettleSingleton BankLincolnCoppenhall JunctionKnowle & DorridgeCoton HillStechfordConnington SouthThirskHither GreenMardenAudenshaw JunctionChester GeneralEltham Well HallKing's Cross & EustonEalingMoorgateNuneatonGreen ParkWest HamTauntonPaisley Gilmour Street