Lighting as support for fire and rescue operations in a smoke-filled tunnel This report presents a series of full-scale movement experiments conducted in the Masthamn tunnel in Stockholm to investigate how different lighting fixtures affect the BA-firefighters’ moving speed in smoke-filled tunnel environment. Four professional firefighters performed 14 tests under different lighting conditions: no lighting (reference tests), point source lighting at 24 m distance, point source lighting at 8 m distance, and continuous LED lighting. The tests were conducted in artificial smoke with visibility below 3 m and without the use of flashlights or thermal imaging cameras. Movement was documented using thermal imaging, while breathing air consumption was measured using telemetry and manual air pressure readings. The results show that lighting configuration had a clear influence on moving speed. Continuous LED lighting and 8 m point source lighting enabled substantially higher movement speeds than the 24 m point source lighting or the reference tests with no lighting. The presence of a handrail also improved orientation and moving speed, even in the absence of active lighting. Air consumption varied more between individual firefighters than between the different tests, although stretcher transport resulted as expected in generally higher air consumption. The findings indicate that continuous evacuation lighting can improve not only evacuation conditions but also the operational capability of BA-firefighting in smoke-filled tunnel environments.
QC 20260602