On 11 November 2000, a fire on a train destroyed the tunnel of Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 funicular in Kaprun, Austria. The disaster claimed the lives of 152 occupants on two trains and 3 people in the overhead station, making it the deadliest railway disaster in Austrian history. Most of the victims were skiers on their way to the Kitzsteinhorn glacier. The cause of the fire was traced to a faulty fan heater.

Train

The Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 funicular railway opened in 1974 and ran from Kaprun to the Kitzsteinhorn and was modernized in 1993. It had an unusual track gauge of , and a length of , of which was inside a tunnel. The train ascended and descended the 30 degree slope at . Two trains ran simultaneously on a single track, with a section halfway allowing them to pass each other. The tunnel terminated at the main reception centre, the Alpincenter, where a motorized winch drove the trains. It was a low-voltage electrical system, with 160-litre hydraulic tanks on board for the brakes and doors, and a conductor. Each train had four passenger compartments giving a total capacity of 180 passengers, and a conductor's cab at each end; the conductor switched end as the train travelled up and down.

Fire

On 11 November 2000 shortly after 9 am, 161 passengers and one conductor boarded the funicular train for the slopes. At 9:02 am the train set off. The train unexpectedly halted eight minutes later, into the tunnel and away from the lower station. Some minutes later the conductor reported a fire to the control centre, and failed in an attempt to open the hydraulically operated doors. The conductor then lost contact with the control centre because the fire had burned through a 16kV power cable running alongside the track, causing a power blackout throughout the ski resort.

The passengers attempted to break the shatter-resistant acrylic windows. Twelve people from the rear of the train broke a window with a ski pole and, advised by an escapee who had been a volunteer fire fighter, escaped downwards past the fire and below the smoke.

Many of the trapped occupants lost consciousness due to toxic fumes. Eventually the conductor managed to unlock the doors, allowing them to be manually forced open. The conscious passengers fled up the tunnel away from the fire. The tunnel acted as a blast furnace, sucking oxygen in from below and sending poisonous fumes, heat and the fire itself upwards. The conductor and all the passengers ascending on foot died by asphyxiation and were burned.

The conductor and the sole passenger on the second train, which was descending in the same tunnel above the burning train, also died of smoke inhalation. The smoke rose into the Alpincenter above. Two fleeing workers in the Alpincenter alerted employees and customers and escaped via an emergency exit. They left the exit doors open, which contributed to the chimney effect. All except four people escaped the centre as it filled with smoke. Firefighters reached the centre and revived one of the four; the other three were asphyxiated.

Casualties and aftermath

At 1 pm on the day of the disaster, Salzburg governor Franz Schausberger held a press conference, announcing that no survivors were expected, except for those who had already escaped on their own. Three days of national mourning were to be held.

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In addition to those who escaped from the Alpincenter and the person whom firefighters revived, 10 Germans and two Austrians escaped from the burning train by descending past the fire. Nineteen-year-old German freestyle skier Sandra Schmitt was one of the victims, at the time the reigning Women's Dual Moguls World Champion. Josef Schaupper, a seven-time Deaflympic medalist, was killed along with his fellow deaf skiers.

The funicular was not reopened and was replaced the next year by a gondola lift, a 24-person Gletscherjet 1 funitel. The track remained in place until 2011, when the track and the supporting structure below the tunnel were removed and the tunnel entrance was sealed shut.

The company operating the funicular, Kapruner Gletscherbahnen AG, rejected the blame and entered a legal dispute. A criminal trial started on 18 June 2002, involving 16 accused, including management of Kapruner Gletscherbahnen AG, Ministry of Transport officials and TÜV officials.

A 2007 class action lawsuit by American attorney Ed Fagan failed, ending in the attorney's personal bankruptcy.

References

  • "Flashback: Kaprun ski train fire." BBC. Thursday, 19 February 2004.
  • "Alpine inferno suspects acquitted." CNN. Thursday, 19 February 2004.