13 found guilty over Mont Blanc tunnel fire

A FRENCH court yesterday found 13 defendants guilty in connection with the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire.

It ordered a six-month jail term for the French head of security at the Alpine passage where 39 people died in the blaze.

The court handed nine individuals most convicted of manslaughter a variety of fines and shorter or suspended prison sentences, while four companies also received fines for their role in the fire.

The three-month trial followed a four-year investigation into the March 24, 1999 blaze, started by a Volvo truck which caught fire.

The blaze burned for two days while firefighters tried to reach victims and vehicles trapped in the tunnel under Western Europe's highest peak.

Defendants faced questions about a shortage of security equipment, the lack of security preparedness exercises and a mishap with the ventilation system that appeared to fan the fire rather than put it out.

The court ordered a four-month suspended sentence for the driver of the truck, Gilbert Degrave of Belgium.

Shortly after the incident, Degrave said he had been alerted to the fire as oncoming vehicles flashed their headlights about halfway through the tunnel. After he stopped and checked underneath the truck, it exploded and became "a ball of fire".

The heaviest sentence went to Gerard Roncoli, the French head of security at the tunnel, who was given a six-month jail term with an additional 24 months suspended sentence.

Remy Chardon, former president of the French tunnel operator ATMB, was given a two-year suspended jail term.