Norway’s Bratli Tunnel has been badly damaged and will remain closed for several weeks following a ferocious, bubbling cheese fire.
A truck carrying 27 tonnes of delicious, caramelised brown goat cheese – known as Brunost – caught fire when driving through the 3km tunnel near Narvik last Thursday.
While no one was injured in the blaze, smouldering toxic gases are slowing the recovery operation and casting doubts on whether those first on the scene will be able to secretly eat some of the cheese.
Fire is considered one of the biggest threats to cheese, as is heat – a fire by-product.
Police officer Viggo Berg notes that the delicacy’s high concentration of fat and sugar made it burn “almost like petrol – if it gets hot enough”. Berg made no further comment on the product’s application as a fuel source, be it a percentage blend or straight.
Despite the fire burning for five days, confusion abounds over the official understanding of the event; Kjell Bjoern Vinje of the Norwegian public roads administration says he was completely unaware that cheese burnt almost like petrol if it gets hot enough.
“I did not know that brown cheese burns so well,” he told Reuters.
In an attempt to counter his complete ignorance of the food/energy content present in dairy produce, Vinje did confirm that it was the first time cheese had caught fire on a Norwegian road in his 15 years with the administration.
