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The Caldecott Tunnel fire killed seven people in the third (then-northernmost) bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, on State Route 24 between Oakland and Orinda in the US state of California just after midnight on 7 April 1982. It is one of the few major tunnel fires involving a cargo normally considered to be highly flammable, namely gasoline. At the time of the fire, the Caldecott tunnel complex consisted of three tubes (or "bores") side-by-side, each . The then-northernmost tube, where the fire occurred, is dedicated to westbound traffic, traveling from Orinda to Oakland. It has a slope of approximately 4.7%, going downhill from the entry portal to the exit portal. ==Description of events== Shortly after midnight, a westbound driver drifted out of lane; she was later ruled to have been legally drunk at the time. Her car struck the tunnel wall, stopping in the left-hand (fast) lane almost halfway through the tunnel. The driver got out to inspect the damage. The initial crash created a bottleneck for traffic coming up behind. However due to the late hour of the crash, there were few other vehicles on the road, generally traveling at high speed. A few minutes later, a double tanker (fixed tank plus a trailer-tanker) carrying gasoline arrived at the bottleneck. By chance, there was an empty bus following close behind it. The tanker hit the car, and then braked to a halt almost exactly halfway through the tunnel. The bus hit either the car, the tanker or both; the bus driver was thrown clear of his vehicle and killed. The bus continued driverless along the tunnel and crashed into a bridge column not far outside the exit portal. The driver of the tanker investigated the state of his rig; it was clearly unable to move, the trailer tanker was leaking gasoline into the gutters, and small fires had started around the leaks. He ran downhill and made it safely out of the exit portal of the tunnel. By this time, burning gasoline from the punctured tanker was flowing down the drainage system. The natural draft in the tunnel (and the 4.7% gradient) acted as a chimney encouraging the smoke to flow uphill towards the oncoming vehicles and out of the (eastern) entrance portal. The tunnel ventilation system, which was not switched on at the time of the crash, remained off throughout the event except for a brief period when the level of carbon monoxide exceeded the trigger level. Approximately 20 vehicles entered the tunnel during the next few minutes. Most drivers managed to reverse out, prompted by the smoke moving towards them. However, four vehicles were trapped behind the burning tanker: a private car, a beer truck and two pickups. The two occupants of the vehicle closest to the fire (one of the pickups) began to reverse out, but soon left their vehicle and walked back uphill to warn the road users behind them. Approximately five minutes after the initial crash, one of these pedestrians called for help at one of the emergency telephones. Shortly afterwards, the fire suddenly increased in size and she was overcome by smoke; the tape recording of the call is blank. Farther east, the occupant of the other pickup left his vehicle and ran out of the entrance portal. The two elderly occupants of a private car were overcome by smoke without ever leaving their vehicle. The two occupants of the beer truck were also overcome by smoke, and collapsed and died as they stepped out of the truck cab. In total, two people died in the initial crash(es), five were killed by the smoke and fire, and two were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. All others escaped unharmed. Unknown to the people fleeing east in the tunnel, there were safe passages at intervals between the tubes; these might have enabled some victims to escape from the fire and smoke, but none of the unlocked doors available was used. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Caldecott Tunnel fire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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