Which areas in road tunnels should be searched for persons - and which should not?

Two questions are repeatedly asked in our courses for firefighting operations in road tunnels: When searching for people in a smoke-filled tunnel, do you also have to search under the vehicles? And: Do you also have to search a car's boot? One thing is clear: Only those areas into which people could easily flee or fall should be searched.

High time pressure requires a targeted search

The rescue of people in a smoke-filled tunnel is under tremendous time pressure. The faster people are found, the greater their chance of survival. Therefore, no time should be spent searching areas where there is a high probability that no persons will be found.

Firefighter searches a tunnel with the search stick. — The entire driving area, including the sidewalk, must be scanned.

The entire area must be searched, including the sidewalks and the SOS cabins. The diagrams below show how to proceed around, under and in vehicles.

Areas and lines marked in yellow show the areas outside and inside vehicles that should be searched in a smoke-filled road tunnel. — The areas marked in yellow outside vehicles (diagram 1) and inside vehicles (diagram 2) are searched.

Search outside of vehicles

Outside of vehicles, the search for persons differs as follows: For vehicles with low ground clearance, the search stick is only used to search along the edge of the vehicle.

Firefighters search areas along a car. — For vehicles with low ground clearance, it is sufficient to search the edges.

Firefighter searches the area alongside the bus — It is very unlikely that people will flee under such a bus in the event of a tunnel fire.

For vehicles with high ground clearance, such as lorries, the areas underneath trailers and semi-trailers are also searched with the search pole. As a general rule: Never search kneeling or lying down under vehicles, as this is too inefficient and too strenuous!

A firefighter searches the area under a trailer — There may be people under lorries.

Search within vehicles

Within the vehicles (see Figure 2 above), the search for persons also depends on the type of vehicle. The driver's cab is completely searched in lorries, but not the cargo compartment.

A firefighter searches the inside of a lorry driver's cab. — The bunk behind the driver's seat must also be searched in lorry cabs.

The search is limited to the passenger compartment in saloon cars with self-contained luggage compartments. In estate cars, the entire interior is searched.

The footwell of a car is searched — The footwells should also be searched in passenger cars, as there may be small children there, for example.

A fire service member searches an estate car's cargo compartment. — Cargo compartments of estate cars should be inspected carefully (the boot of saloon cars is not searched).

The entire interior of buses is also searched. This also includes the toilet and the driver's sleeping compartment in coaches.

A firefighter searches the passenger area of a bus. — The entire passenger compartment must be searched in buses, including the footwells in front of the seats.

Leaflets show the entire search pattern

A quick, in-depth overview of search & rescue in road tunnels is provided by the Leaflet «Firefighting operations in road tunnels», which we have published as an addition to the textbook with the same name. It also contains the search pattern and other instructions for organising the search for people in smoke-filled road tunnels.

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