A BURNING tyre closed the Port Tunnel for the third time in a fortnight yesterday,

once again plunging Dublin into traffic chaos.

Traffic builds up as a towing vehicle waits to enter the Port Tunnel to retrieve the truck

involved in the alert yesterday

Four units of the fire brigade dealt with the small fire, which broke out on the wheel of a lorry in the north tunnel at around 12.30pm.

It comes less than two weeks after the tunnel was closed for over eight hours because of an electrical fault, and follows media reports questioning safety procedures in the tunnel.

One woman who was in the tunnel yesterday, Sinead Lamont, from Dublin, said there was a lack of clear announcements when the fire broke out.

"It was unintelligible, you couldn't make out what they were saying at all, nobody could hear," she said.

She told Newstalk how drivers had to user their mobile phones to get safety instructions. ''Several people phoned the Port Authorities from the tunnel."

Fine Gael's transport spokesman, Fergus O'Dowd, last night called for a full safety review of the tunnel. He said that the reports of confusion needed to be clarified.

"If there are any faults then it could be disastrous in the event of a major fire," he said.

But the National Roads Authority (NRA) said the safety system operated as it should have done yesterday, and praised the work of tunnel staff who dealt with the incident.

The truck was in the northbound tunnel, after entering near Dublin Port. The fire was noticed when the truck was about a quarter of the way into the tunnel and an emergency operation swung into action.

The fire brigade and ambulances were soon on the scene.

Barriers

"All tunnel traffic was stopped on both (tunnels),'' an NRA spokesman said. "Everything worked according to plan so we're very happy with that,'' he said.

A full assessment of the €751m tunnel was carried out, but no major damage had been caused. The southbound lane reopened first, at 3.30pm, before the northbound partially reopened around 5pm.

However, traffic began backing up heavily on roads around the tunnel shortly after it was closed. Dublin City Council lifted the HGV ban through the city centre, thronging the streets with lorries and causing further delays.