Fire Suppression System Inside Eisenhower Tunnel Gets Real Test Day Before Scheduled One
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - It's the worst case scenario: a tractor trailer catching fire inside the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels. On Wednesday evening at around 7:30 p.m. that fear was realized when a when a tractor-trailer hauling cardboard caught fire, sending black smoke pouring out of the tunnel entrance.
According to the Summit Fire & EMS crews who responded, everyone got out okay but serious questions are being raised about just how well the multi-million dollar fire suppression system installed in recent years works during an emergency.
The Colorado Department of Transportation told CBS4 the fire suppression system worked as designated, not to fully put out the fire but to give crews time to get to the scene.
"The box truck started burning the owner of the box truck got out of his vehicle try to put the fire out with the fire extinguisher," Paul Jesaitis CDOT region one transportation director said.
According to Summit Fire, the fire suppression system did not extinguish the fire.
CDOT crews responded by shutting down the tunnel to traffic and launching the fire suppression system.
"That did work as intended. It sprays about 1,000 gallons a minute, dropped about 1,000 gallons a minute onto the burning truck," Jesaitis said.
That knocked the flames down giving people inside the tunnel time to escape the heavy smoke and heat.
"We had about six of our overhead lights that were melted when we had a ceramic ceiling tile that warped from the heat," Jesaitis said.
Local fire crews were called in to finish the job.
The incident does bring attention to the danger with fire inside the tunnel and why that multi-million dollar system was installed in recent years in the first place.
CDOT was already planning a major test of that fire suppression system for Thursday night before this incident occurred.
