Smoke that seeped into a tunnel currently being constructed by Enemalta in the limits of Marsascala caused some moments of panic yesterday morning. The four workers on duty managed to leave the area uninjured before calling for help.

An Enemalta Corporation statement, issued following questions sent by The Malta Independent, said that at about 10am, the Civil Protection Department called the corporation’s fire fighting section and informed them that they had received reports that smoke was coming out of the entrance of the Enemalta tunnel near the waste recycling plant at Marsascala.

The Enemalta fire fighting team joined the Civil Protection fire fighting and medical personnel already on site. The four workmen who were working in the tunnel had already vacated the tunnel without assistance, the corporation said. Nobody was hurt.

Enemalta personnel were not involved since the tunnel has not yet been handed over to the corporation. The contractors responsible for the excavation of the tunnels are still working to complete the work.

The tunnel is some three kilometres long and, once completed, Enemalta will be installing 33kV and 11kV cables to reinforce the high voltage network.

According to these workmen, they encountered some dense smoke while they were entering the tunnel, the corporation said. This smoke was soon blown out of the tunnel by the air currents. Since there was no equipment belonging to Enemalta inside the tunnels, no damage was reported. No power cuts were caused either.

Inspections carried out inside the tunnel did not reveal the source of the smoke and its cause could not be determined.

Measurements of the air quality inside the tunnels did not show any abnormal readings. It is suspected that this smoke could have entered the tunnel from one of its ventilation shafts, Enemalta said.