From Click to Open Web Page

Among the scenarios discussed in Deliverable 2.1 "Application scenario building/definition", the emergency response and in particular the response to a road tunnel fire incident is the subject of the RUNES demonstator, which is under development.

Responding effectively to emergency situations such as earthquakes, forest fires, terrorist attacks and chemical spills involves a complex interaction of engineering, technology and people. Major incidents have shown that current safety systems are vulnerable mainly because traditional data acquisition systems and control systems are not seamlessly integrated and they do not support redundancy for components that have failed or been destroyed. The RUNES technology is ideal for addressing issues associated with gaining an understanding of the environment resulting from natural or man-made disasters, for assisting the command authorities in understanding the location and condition of people and assets in the emergency zone and for allowing tasks to be carried out to locate or rescue victims, in many cases using systems that are already present at the scene and that can be used for purposes for which they were not originally designed.

Tunnels are complex engineering structures built in order to save transportation time and costs as well as to protect the environment. Statistics show that the risk of accidents in tunnels is lower than on open roads and motorways. This is primarily due to the minimal effect of weather conditions, speed limits, steady lighting conditions, as well as the low number of junctions in tunnels. But when a fire breaks out in a tunnel, vehicle occupants are changed from spectators of an accident into participants in a potential disaster, since they can be easily exposed to toxic flame and smoke and trapped in areas where rescue teams have very restricted access. Over 200 people have died in Europe as result of tunnel fires in the last decade. According to a report by the European Commission the direct costs of recent tunnel fires, including reparation amount to 210M EUR per year. With more tunnels (35% extra tunnels over 1km in length are to be constructed between 2002 and 2010 in Europe cf. previous report), the number of accidents and tunnel fires is likely to increase.