Tunnel Death Toll Soars

French police on Saturday confirmed that at least 40 people were killed in the explosion that swept through the massive Mont Blanc tunnel that runs under the French Alps. CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston reports.

It's the worst nightmare for anyone who travels in a tunnel: a fire that traps drivers and passengers, with smoke and flames everywhere. That's what happened in the tunnel and on the highway when a Belgian truck carrying flour and margarine exploded Wednesday.

Friday morning, smoke and heat continued to frustrate the efforts of firemen and police trying to recover bodies of victims. The intense heat caused part of the tunnel ceiling to collapse. Exhausted firefighters endured searing heat and poisonous smoke to finally extinguish the fire later on Friday.

Crews searched through charred tractor-trailer trucks for more victims. Up to 40 people may have died in the tunnel, said Philippe Pathous, fire chief for the Haute-Savoie region.

The extreme heat and smoke had such a deadly effect that only two or three victims were able to find refuge in heat-resistant bunkers in the tunnel, fire official Jean-Guy Laurent said. The rest were found at the wheels of the cars.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Chamonix fire chief Christian Comte said he had spent five hours in the tunnel Wednesday looking for missing firefighters.

"The smoke was very dense and the temperatures were soaring, but I knew that I had to go help them," he said from the Sallanches Hospital, where he was recovering from smoke inhalation.

The fire raised questions about the emergency systems in the tunnel, which is equipped with ventilation equipment and 20 bunkers designed to resist heat and toxic fumes, each of which can hold dozens of people.

It was the first fatal fire in the tunnel, which was the longest in the world when President Charles de Gaulle opened it in 1965. The Alpine tunnel is used daily by about 4,000 trucks. The seven-mile route runs beneath Europe's highest mountain.