Channel Tunnel Fire 2008

The destruction due to yesterday's fire within the Channel tunnel ended up being the worst in the solution's history, with unconfirmed reports saying the blaze ruined six carriages and something locomotive.

This outweighs the destruction caused by a fire in November 1996, which took 6 months to fix.

The severity of the inferno, which took 300 firefighters to control, is likely to mean the Eurostar will suffer significant delays to its service for some time.

These days, disaster service crews had been able to control the blaze, although many "hot places" were still becoming kept under close observance.

A Eurotunnel spokesman told the Guardian: "The chair for the fire has gone out. The fire brigade has become coping with the hot places to ensure they don't really flare-up."

French authorities stated the primary section of the fire – which reached temperatures of around 1, 000C (1, 832F) - had been extinguished at 7am UK time, 16 hours after it had started. Firefighters after that spent couple of hours putting completely minor fires nearby.

Thirty-two everyone was evacuated after the fire began before 2pm British time on a train carrying lorries from Folkestone to Calais.

The blaze ended up being thought to have started when a lorry onboard caught fire and inferno rapidly engulfed other vehicles.

Relief teams arrived at the scene, about seven miles from French end of the 31-mile undersea link, and 32 people - mainly lorry motorists and including seven Brit nationals - had been evacuated through a site tunnel.

Fourteen people were taken to hospital, some with breathing problems because smoke cigarettes breathing. There were no passenger trains in the tunnel at the time but there were truckers aboard the stricken cargo train.

One, Patrique Lejein, informed reporters: "We heard two loud bangs, like explosions, and instantly dense smoke swept through carriage. The train stumbled on a grinding halt, we had been all thrown forwards, the lights went out, and there was complete mayhem - people just began to stress. We didn't know very well what had taken place."

He stated the disaster exit jammed, and something passenger had to take a hammer to a window to obtain men and women away.

Eurostar yesterday evening cancelled all today's train services causing huge tailbacks to motorists in Kent.

Business resources indicated some trains may begin operating through one tunnel on week-end on earliest, definition delays and cancellations would-be inevitable.

Eurostar will trade passes or refund cash if you do not want to travel following the event. About 30, 000 everyone was due to travel on 50 solutions between London, Brussels and Paris today.

Two thousand individuals had been stranded yesterday afternoon before Eurostar solutions were cut back to programs in London, Paris and Brussels. Another 15, 000 who had been hoping to use the cross-Channel link yesterday evening were told their particular trains was in fact cancelled.

At rush-hour at Paris's Gare du Nord, there was anger and confusion as hundreds of mostly British passengers tried to discover other ways to have residence. John Jefferson, a pensioner from Cheshire, had been section of a team of retired tourists who had simply concluded any occasion in the Loire.

Their trip operator organised a coach to collect them from Paris station in addition they had been to visit by ferry, hoping to achieve home by 4am.

Jefferson stated: "Eurostar have not handled this very well at all. There isno sign of any significant administration staff. You'd about 300 puzzled and mad individuals [at the place] and Eurostar didn't appear to have what other program. We had been quite cross they don't seem interested."

Various other tourists from Britain were phoning getaway firms trying to arrange last-minute accommodation in Paris.