A survey of vehicle fires in Norwegian road tunnels 2008–2011

•The average number of fires in Norwegian road tunnels is 21.25 per year per 1000 tunnels.•The fires do usually not involve harm to people or tunnels.•Heavy vehicles are overrepresented.•Subsea road tunnels are overrepresented.•Causes of fires involving heavy and light vehicles are different.

Norway is one of the countries that constructs most road tunnels, and there are well over 1000 in the country today. The aim of this study is to map the prevalence and describe the characteristics of vehicle fires in Norwegian road tunnels 2008–2011. The average number of fires in Norwegian road tunnels is 21.25 per year per 1000 tunnels, and the average number of smoke without fire (SWF) is 12.5 per year per 1000 tunnels. The study provides four main results. The first is that the fires generally did not involve harm to people. This has also been reported in previous Norwegian research. The second finding is that heavy vehicles are overrepresented in fires in Norwegian road tunnels. This is in line with international research. The third main finding is that the causes of road tunnel fires involving heavy and light vehicles are different. This is also in accordance with international research. The fourth important and unique finding of the study is that subsea road tunnels are overrepresented in the statistics of fires in Norwegian road tunnels.