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Chinese City Gets Two-Headed Fire Truck, Reminds People of the 1999 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire

A rather peculiar creature has been seen recently on the streets of Nanjing, capital of south China’s Jiangsu province, a two-headed fire truck that is able to drive each way as if it’s only one. The model has been seen before, only it’s on the other side of the world, right at the border between France and Italy. Even though the curious truck truly is a head-turner, it reminds of a sad story.
The MAN BAI Janus 4000 "Bifronte" was seen in China 1 photo
Photo: www.english.cri.cn
The truck is able to drive each way, thus saving the trouble of having to turn or reverse. The wheels of one head turn according to the steering wheel in charge with driving, which makes it quite impressive considering there’s a lot of engineering skill implied. The one in question was reportedly acquired recently for 9 million-yuan ($1,43 million) and will be used for what it was designed, emergencies in narrow streets and tunnels.

There are a lot of features that qualify the big fellow among the first-class emergency vehicles. Designed by German heavy truck maker MAN, the model is related to a rather tragical event. On the morning of 24 March 1999, 38 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel, a highway tunnel in Europe, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps.

It took years of investigation, blame-placing and compensating of victims, but most importantly a series of safety measures have later improved conditions in the tunnel. Ventilation system was enhanced, better cameras were installed, the disaster shelters were modified to be more robust and an entire control center dedicated to monitoring the tunnel was created.

The MAN BAI Janus 4000 “Bifronte” was also part of this program that was meant to assure never will this type of tragedy happen again. According to FireGeezer, three of the trucks were built and two are in service. The two-headed fire truck was designed and built by BAI of Italy following the tragedy, since the tunnel is over 7 miles long and fire equipment and personnel couldn’t reach the victims for two days.

The vehicle is able to travel up to 120mph in either direction without turing. It carries full fire gear alon with 1,056 gallons (4,000 liter) water tank and 500 gallons (1,892 liters) foam tank.
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