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141:(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.
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The driver of the tanker inspected his rig and found it immobile, with gasoline leaking from the trailer into the gutters and small fires igniting around the leaks. He ran downhill and safely exited the tunnel. By then, burning gasoline from the damaged tanker was flowing through the drainage system.
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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
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Brass vehicle components at the tanker melted, indicating that temperatures were over 1,800 °F (980 °C), but no examples of melted copper (melting point 1,981 °F (1,083 °C)) were identified during the clean-up operations, indicating that the maximum temperature was within this
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Firefighting at the site in the tunnel began at 1:30 am once the potentially explosive atmosphere at the lake was under control. However, the heat of the fire had seriously affected the integrity of the tunnel firemain, and the water pressure was insufficient to support a hose stream. In the
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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
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The tunnel's wall tiles, water pipes, lighting, communications, signage and emergency panels had to be replaced throughout the east portion of the tunnel. The ceiling tiles had previously been removed due to poor adhesion. As part of the reconstruction project, enameled metal panels were used to
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At the time of the fire, the
Caldecott tunnel complex consisted of three bores side-by-side, each 0.7 mi long (1.1 km). The then-northernmost bore, where the fire occurred, is dedicated to westbound traffic, traveling from Orinda to Oakland. It has a slope of approximately 4.7%, going
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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
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The fire burned for between twenty-eight and forty minutes, during which time most of the 8,700 U.S. gal (33,000 L) of gasoline carried by the truck were consumed. About 250 U.S. gal (950 L) were either discharged into the drainage or recovered from the tanker.
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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
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Crews were dispatched from two local fire departments, Orinda and
Oakland. Emergency services at the entry (eastern) portal took charge of those evacuated from the tunnel, while the emergency services at the exit portal were able to walk uphill to within a few tens of yards of the fire.
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by intense heat all the way to the entrance portal, 1,720 ft away (520 m). Over the first 750 ft (230 m) east of the fire site, there was spalling of the concrete false ceiling and of the concrete walls behind the tiles. Spalling stopped at the steel
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The first concern of the firefighters was to ensure that the gasoline running down the drainage system did not pose an explosion hazard to their firefighting efforts. Unfortunately the valves that should have been used to divert the drainage outfall to a
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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
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Over the first 675 ft (206 m), the steel blanking plates over the ventilation flues in the false ceiling (these blanking plates are used to balance the air supply and extract rates) were buckled by heat and had to be replaced.
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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 were used.
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absence of an effective means of fighting it, the fire was allowed to burn out and the remnants were extinguished with foam and dry powder. The Stop message was issued at 2:54 am.
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cover the ceiling concrete. The third tube of the tunnel was closed for repairs lasting a period of months; costs of the reconstruction project totaled more than $ 3 million.
320:— a 2000 fire that occurred in an inclined funicular railway tunnel in Austria, where the tunnel's incline produced a similar chimney effect, with fatal consequences
113:, 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
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All the heat and smoke from the fire went uphill towards the eastern entry portal. There was no fire damage west (downhill) of the fire site.
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In total, two people died in the initial crash(es), five were killed by the smoke and fire, and two were hospitalized for
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Highway
Accident Report - Multiple Vehicle Collision and Fire, Caldecott Tunnel near Oakland, California, APRIL 7, 1982
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Shortly after midnight, a westbound driver drifted out of her lane; she was later ruled to have been
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Serious Tunnel Fires with
Emphasis on the Caldecott Tunnel Fire, Oakland, California April 7, 1982.
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PATRAM 83, 7th
International Symposium on Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials
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The
Caldecott tunnel fire thermal environments, regulatory considerations and probabilities,
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Proceedings of the 2nd
International Conference on Safety in Road and Rail Tunnels, 1995;
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Transportation
Research Board Committee A2C04, Tunnels and Underground Structures, 1983.
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A review of incidents involving hazardous materials in road and rail tunnels,
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San
Francisco Examiner, Wednesday 7 April and Thursday April 8, 1982
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killed seven people in the third (then-northernmost) bore of the
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The tiles and grout on the walls of the tunnel were damaged and
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June
Rutledge (on emergency telephone when a fireball occurred)
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and non-functional, and the gasoline went into a nearby lake.
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when it emerged from the tunnel and crashed into the column.
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vehicles on the road, generally traveling at high speed.
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The Caldecott tunnel complex has a permanently staffed
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Katherine Lenz and George Lenz (stayed in their car)
121:downhill from the entry portal to the exit portal.
223:Steve Rutledge (in the pickup closest to the fire)
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46:but its sources remain unclear because it lacks
344:Prevention and Control of Highway Tunnel Fires,
198:Janice Ferris (driver of the first stopped car)
350:Larson, D.W., Reese, R.T. and Wilmot, E.L.,
149:except for a brief period when the level of
77:Learn how and when to remove this message
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314:— scene of fatal crash and fire in 2001
487:April 1982 events in the United States
482:Transportation disasters in California
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390:National Transportation Safety Board,
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226:Paul Petroelje (in the other pickup)
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457:Road incidents in the United States
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207:Everett Kidney (in the beer truck)
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210:Melvin Young (in the beer truck)
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447:1982 fires in the United States
180:. All others escaped unharmed.
452:History of Oakland, California
201:John Dykes (driver of the bus)
173:stepped out of the truck cab.
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330:List of transportation fires
153:exceeded the trigger level.
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462:Transport disasters in 1982
360:Riley, N. and Lelland, A.,
346:FHWA report RD-083-32, 1983
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16:1982 wildfire in California
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32:This article includes a
377:Road tunnel fire safety
137:A few minutes later, a
61:more precise citations.
394:NTSB/HAR-83/01, 1983.
125:Description of events
109:in the U.S. state of
91:Caldecott Tunnel fire
312:Gotthard Road Tunnel
167:emergency telephones
467:Fires in California
419: /
253:hazardous materials
477:1982 in California
423:37.858°N 122.213°W
379:NFPA Journal, 2000
292:reinforcement bars
231:Emergency response
34:list of references
241:closed-circuit TV
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270:Extent of damage
178:smoke inhalation
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426: /
414:122°12′47″W
59:introducing
441:Categories
411:37°51′29″N
336:References
188:Casualties
111:California
67:April 2013
306:See also
260:corroded
115:gasoline
101:between
287:spalled
282:range.
218:Injured
159:pickups
103:Oakland
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193:Killed
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