Car on fire in Palermo-Messina tunnel, causing traffic disruptions

Last Updated: May 25, 2024

Fear on the Palermo-Messina highway and inconvenience for motorists. Yesterday afternoon, the firefighters of the Sant’Agata di Militello detachment intervened in a car fire that broke out on the A20 inside the Piana tunnel. The flames completely destroyed the car. The firefighting team intervened with a tanker pump (APS) and a pick-up with a module due to the considerable length of the tunnel in question. The personnel had to intervene with self-protectors in a smoke-filled and extremely low visibility environment, managing to completely extinguish the flames. Subsequently, technicians from the consortium of Sicilian highways (CAS) activated the fans inside the tunnel to expel the smoke. Due to the thermal concrete, as a precaution, the closure of the motorway section from Santo Stefano di Camastra to Tusa was requested in order to assess the safety conditions within the tunnel by technical staff from CAS, causing some inconvenience this morning.