Fire in the East Area neutrino line

On the morning of Sunday, 31 August, fire broke out in the middle of the outer tunnel in the south-east PS area, which houses the k 11 low-momentum separated pion beam and the neutrino beam which will feed the heavy-liquid bubble chamber Gargamelle. The neutrino beam was being tested. It took the CERN firemen over two hours to put out the blaze, and the photograph gives some idea of the damage. Fortunately, no-one was injured. However, a whole series of cables were burned out and the pulsed magnets, the vacuum system and the beam control system were damaged by the intense heat and falling white-hot debris. Some of the synthetic mastic sealing of the building was destroyed.