Австриядағы Капрун фуникулерінің өрт трагедиясы

2000 funicular train fire in Austria

On 11 November 2000, a fire in the tunnel of Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 funicular in Kaprun, Austria, killed 155 people. The cause was traced to a faulty fan heater. Most of the victims were skiers on their way to the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier. To date, this incident remains the deadliest rail disaster in Austrian history.

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 946, 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 onboard 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.

On 11 November 2000 shortly after 9:00 am, 161 passengers and one conductor boarded the funicular train for the slopes. The train unexpectedly halted into the tunnel. 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 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.

On 11 November 2004, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the disaster, a memorial was inaugurated. It features a stone structure with 155 glass columns, each representing one of the victims who perished in the incident.