Ed Blazina

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

(TNS)

Mark Compton knew something serious was happening when his cellphone began blowing up with messages after 9 p.m. on a Thursday night.

Others on the staff at the Pennsylvania Turnpike were notifying the CEO about a potentially deadly situation inside the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel, where one vehicle was on fire and about 80 others were trapped inside.

“I was really concerned that this was the one we feared,” Compton said last week.

It turned out that a pickup truck and trailer were the only vehicles involved in the smoky fire June 4, and emergency personnel evacuated about 150 people from the 6,070-foot-long tunnel. No one was injured except the truck driver, who suffered a medical situation after the fire started.

But there were lessons to learn from the incident.

The turnpike is studying what happened as part of an after-incident review and has met at least twice with emergency responders since the fire. The formal report won’t be ready until September.

The agency, however, already is making changes: improving communications inside the tunnel, better familiarizing emergency responders with conditions inside it, and adding exhaust fans at every tunnel statewide.

Turnpike officials had a formal meeting with about 70 first responders earlier this month to debrief them and hear their concerns, as well as distribute special radios for each department to use when they are inside the tunnel.

A few days later, they were invited to tour the tunnel during an annual overnight maintenance closure.

First major tunnel fire

Although the turnpike has been open since the 1940s and has operated five tunnels for decades, no one can remember a serious fire inside any of the tunnels.

In most cases, incidents inside the tunnels involve minor vehicle crashes or breakdowns.

Nevertheless, the agency always has tunnel guards on duty at each end of all the tunnels 24 hours a day. They are the ultimate first responders, can tow vehicles if necessary and usually make the first 911 call if additional help is needed.

Compton said the guards on duty at Allegheny Mountain on June 4 “did an amazing job” getting people out and summoning state police, fire departments and other emergency personnel to a scene he described in a television interview as “chaotic.”

In an interview last week, Compton called the results “extraordinary” but conceded “there were a few things that didn’t work right.” The purpose of the after-incident review is to identify the shortcomings and plan better responses in the future, he said.

Turnpike CEO Mark Compton says officials are taking a post-incident review of a June fire inside the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel seriously, and that several emergency response steps have already been implemented.( Commonwealth Media Services)

A similar review came after a 3-foot snowstorm in January 2016 stranded dozens of vehicles for 24 hours or more on Allegheny Mountain approaching the same tunnel. That led to major changes in turnpike and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation protocols for closing roads during winter storms.

“We take these reviews seriously,” Compton said. “It’s not just words on a page, plans left on a shelf somewhere.

“I would tell you we’re always in constant review. This [incident] was definitely unique.”

Catastrophe averted

For the tunnel fire, several volunteer fire departments responded and worked through heavy smoke to douse the flames and prevent any other vehicles from being damaged. It took about six hours — until about 3:30 a.m. — before people were able to return to their vehicles abandoned in the tunnel and leave.

Pennsylvania State Trooper Scott Kovach, who also is deputy chief of the Sipesville Volunteer Fire Department, was among the first to respond to the fire as a trooper.

He said first responders were lucky the incident played out the way it did.

“It definitely had the potential to be much worse than it really was,” he said.

Despite thick smoke, many motorists initially didn’t want to leave their vehicles, Kovach said. When troopers ordered them to leave, they cooperated.

The smoke and the lack of exhaust fans were major problems, firefighters said. The turnpike quickly shipped two fans from the Tuscarora Mountain Tunnel, about 60 miles away.

Firefighters also had difficulty communicating with each other and with turnpike officials once they were inside the tunnel. Following the first after-incident meeting, the agency distributed short-distance radios for direct communication in the tunnel.

‘When we have to go to the tunnel’

During the overnight tour, emergency crews had the opportunity to see the inside of the tunnel, identify three passages connecting the two tubes, and find water supply lines.

“The turnpike invited fire departments that were at the scene and they were able to tour the tunnel, meet guards, hook up to water,” Kovach said. “It gave the fire departments a better understanding in normal conditions to be able to see how all the things were situated in the tunnel.”

The fire departments now have “a pre-plan of how to get water to the actual incident,” he said.

Lynn Benning, the 36-year chief of the New Baltimore Volunteer Fire Department, said the biggest problem his department faced was something that’s difficult to solve: The fast build-up of traffic after the fire started that made it difficult for his company to get to the scene from seven miles away. He praised the turnpike for the steps it has already taken.

“The turnpike is trying to do things to make it easier for when we have to go to the tunnel,” the chief said.

Compton said the turnpike will make changes at all tunnels as a result of this incident. It is ordering exhaust fans for all tunnels and distributing the special radios to emergency responders at the other sites.

Other items cited by firefighters — such as helping stranded motorists gain access to the 3-foot-high walkway along the inside berm of the tunnel and wheelchairs to help those with mobility problems — are being considered.

“We’ve committed to the partners to have the after-incident report made public,” Compton said. “The good Lord was with us that night, that’s for sure.”

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