SATSOP (AP) — Firefighters from Seattle, Grays Harbor County, Ventura County, Calif., and New York City are training this week to fight tunnel fires, using tunnels at the abandoned nuclear plant project at Satsop, in southwest Washington.
Light rail tunnels and a new Highway 99 tunnel in Seattle could present special heat and smoke problems if a fire breaks out in a construction accident or collision.
The Seattle Times reports firefighters are testing new four-hour breathing gear as they find and drag bundles representing victims through smoke created by burning wooden pallets.
The training is offered by the Satsop Business Park in a tunnel 12 feet in diameter that had been intended to carry water to a cooling tower. The nuclear plant project was never completed.
