The fire department has identified serious fire safety deficiencies in most tunnels of the country’s rail network.

According to completely crossed out information “K”its leaders Fire Department and his staff Hellenic Railways Organization (ORE) carried out in recent months (including and necessarily before Tempe disaster) normal openings in tunnels carrying passenger and commercial trains. The results of the inspections are extremely alarming, as it was found that there was either a complete lack of fire safety measures, or poor maintenance of existing facilities. Recognizes the problem Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and responsible minister George Herapetritis.

According to informed sources, the opening of the tunnels of the railway network began about a year ago and by the beginning of January, 15 out of 18 tunnels more than a kilometer long had been checked. The inspections were attended by employees of the fire department of local services, as well as the UGE. The results obtained from this process are extremely disturbing. More than one – told “K” sources. that there are general findings of autopsies in the tunnels, primarily the absence of fire-fighting devices. Checklists still find that ventilation systemsand there is no passage for fire brigades to access them.

In other words, in the event of a fire in a passenger or commercial train, it is very likely that there are no fire safety facilities in the tunnel, the fire brigade will not be able to reach the extinguishing point and that the “smoke extraction systems in the tunnels will not work. In July 2015, for example, a commercial train caught fire about 1000 meters from its exit. Tempe Tunnel.

What then happened? The water supply and ventilation systems are out of order! From a complaint letter filed at the time by the Thessaly Fire Service Union, it appeared that the problem was already known after an exercise conducted by EMAK in 2010, when they did not take any action. “If the train was a passenger train, we would have had casualties. What needs to be done so that some authorities finally respect the safety of citizens? PY trade union activists said in a statement Not only have the problems not been resolved, they remain after 13 years.

Recent on-site inspections in railway tunnels have also revealed the following: the impossibility of communication in the tunnels between, for example, rescue crews and railway workers with train crews, as well as the lack of safe escape routes. Based on the foregoing, the answer to the question posed in recent days “what would happen if the collision of two trains on the night of February 28 took place inside, and not outside the Tempe tunnel” is quite obvious.

Fire officials and OSE personnel conduct autopsies in the tunnels.

New Security Plans

For each of the 15 tunnels that were opened, the fire department drew up an updated safety plan, and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, as well as Maximos Palace, were informed in writing of the results.

As in the case of the 717 contract for signaling and telecontrol, the construction of railway tunnels was accompanied by complaints of embezzlement, disloyalty, etc. It is indicative that the former New Democracy MP and the current president of the Christian Democratic Party of Greece, Nikos Nikolopoulos, condemned. In his question to Parliament in 2015, he characteristically mentioned that for the construction of the 7-kilometer Othrios tunnel on the Lianoklady-Domokos section, the inspector general of the state administration drew up a protocol in which the management of ERGOSE was held criminally liable. for a loss of 40 million euros!

When asked about this, expert Giorgos Perivoliotis and sources from the fire department said that there is still no legislation in Greece defining the safety standards that railway tunnels should have…