Hsuehshan tunnel fire

[Taiwan Luthiers]

I wonder how it's possible that a bus, driving on diesel can go up in flames like that ... you can hold a flame to diesel and even than it won't burn.

Perhaps it got hot enough where the fuel just vaporized enough that it can catch on fire. Vegetable oil won't burn if you hold a fire to it but if you left it on a stove on high too long it will spontaneously catch on fire.

I mean if they won't burn then it wouldn't make a very good fuel...

[tommy525]

Didnt the bus rear-end a car? I think the car caught fire and the fire spread to the bus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD29yQnM ... re=related

pretty scary

[Battery9]

I was going through the tunnel by Muzha once, when a scooter crashed and caught fire, the whole tunnel was filled with smoke. We got out using the little tunnel that leads to the other 'leg' of the tunnel. It was scary because everyone was panicking and it was impossible to breathe. For the past month they have been closing one leg of the tunnel and only one side gets used...I HATE going through there..only one lane.

[Icon]

Didnt the bus rear-end a car? I think the car caught fire and the fire spread to the bus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD29yQnM ... re=related

pretty scary

That is not clear to me yet. I've seen accounts that say that the two people who died were in a smaller car that got sandwiched between the buses. Then, there are reports that the bus driver did not die.

What is clear is that the blue truck had a blowout, the driver slammed on teh brakes, the bus behind him swerved to avoid collision with other smaller vehicles, but the bus behind it slammed into it/into the smaller car between them. Big exlosion, people running to the shelter, trapped for like 3 hours...

[Icon]

I wonder how it's possible that a bus, driving on diesel can go up in flames like that ... you can hold a flame to diesel and even than it won't burn.

Perhaps it got hot enough where the fuel just vaporized enough that it can catch on fire. Vegetable oil won't burn if you hold a fire to it but if you left it on a stove on high too long it will spontaneously catch on fire.

I mean if they won't burn then it wouldn't make a very good fuel...

Last night the news were saying -and take this with a pound of salt- that the temperatures inside teh tunnel got up to 1000 degrees, as the ceiling is designed to withstand 800-900, and it melted. The carnage of the buses looks pretty scary.

[Icon]

I was going through the tunnel by Muzha once, when a scooter crashed and caught fire, the whole tunnel was filled with smoke. We got out using the little tunnel that leads to the other 'leg' of the tunnel. It was scary because everyone was panicking and it was impossible to breathe. For the past month they have been closing one leg of the tunnel and only one side gets used...I HATE going through there..only one lane.

Interestingly, the double decker buses that go into the tunnel have a compartment with special fireproof head masks that allow people to breathe like 40 minutes in smoky conditions, plus oxygen tanks and even hand powered torches. Howwever, in the rush to get out, the passengers and driver forgot and they were unable to escape any further because they couldn't see their way.

[Super Hans]

I still don't get how this happened.

All vehicles were travelling at the same speed. The car between the two buses had a blowout, and whether or not the the driver lost control, the car would have slowed down. It is understandable that the bus behind hit the car that had the blowout, but how did the bus behind then ram the car into the bus in front. If the car slowed down, which it would have done, and the bus in front continued at the same speed, how did the bus behind end up catching up with the bus in front thereby sandwiching the car in the middle?

It makes absolutely no sense.

[Taiwan Luthiers]

Like I said probably they were tailgating.

[Super Hans]

Yep, but that still comes nowhere near to explaining the accident. The bus would have had to have sped up in order to push the slowing car into the bus in front - and it would have had to have sped up a lot and very rapidly.

[Icon]

I guess it is just the overall weight of the bus, I mean, it's like a six-wheeler. Those things can't just stop when they hit the brakes. But still, it seems so violent, surely they were too close and going too fast.