TRAGIC accidents tend to provide the sharpest spur to action. The
Kitzsteinhorn disaster last November, in which a train caught fire in a tunnel
on its way to the ski slopes, is one such horrific example
(快猫短视频, 18 November 2000, p 4).
It led me to ask Keith Hill, the junior minister responsible for the railways,
what safety procedures Britain has in place should a tunnel fire occur here.
Hill replied that the best way to stop a fire spreading is to prevent it from
starting in the first place, or to make sure that there is so little flammable
material available that any fire will burn itself out.
Combustible materials
are being removed from all London Underground trains and a variety of
preventative modifications made to the fleet, he said. Tunnels are now free of
combustibles and cleaning and inspection regimes have been tightened up.
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London Underground commissioned research into the sort of chimney effect that
wreaked havoc in Kitzsteinhorn and concluded that this can happen in tunnels
where the gradient is 20 per cent or more, said Hill. London鈥檚 Underground
tunnels are not as steep as this. Should a fire break out in one, the smoke
would flow at roof level, allowing passengers to escape along the floor of the
tunnel. Escalator gradients are more than 20 per cent, but fire prevention
precautions introduced as a result of the King鈥檚 Cross fire of 1987 have reduced
the chance of a chimney-effect fire breaking out, he said.
Hill added that the government is anxious to find out the cause of the
Kitzsteinhorn fire and whether there are any lessons to be learned from it. The
Health and Safety Executive takes a close interest in such matters and has
offered technical assistance to the Austrian investigators. 鈥淲e will do whatever
is necessary to ensure passenger safety on the Underground,鈥� the minister
promised.
Certainly, such action would be the best memorial to the many young lives
lost at Kitzsteinhorn.
MY WIFE and I went on holiday to Crete in late October. It would not be
unfair to describe some of the forests in the lovely western part of the island
as decidedly sickly. I understand now that, from north Norway to the
Mediterranean, only 36 per cent of broadleaved and conifer trees are healthy.
One in five shows damage, having lost at least a quarter of its leaf canopy.
Fran莽ois Kremer of the European Commission forestry division says that
Mediterranean trees are hardest hit
(快猫短视频, 28 October 2000, p 6).
Nitrogen compounds from air pollution seem to be part of the problem.
Peter Hutchison, chairman of Britain鈥檚 Forestry Commission, tells me that it
shares the concern about nitrogen compounds and is trying to find out more about
the problem. The Forestry Commission is also revising its Forest and Water
Guidelines to take account of the latest research on the impacts of forestry on
water resources. This has a direct relevance to acidification by sulphur and
nitrogen compounds. So far, though, no evidence has been found of a direct
connection between nitrogen pollution and the ill health of trees at the sites
with the highest nitrogen levels in Britain, Hutchison says. However,
observation suggests that not all is well: research must continue.