[DrAwesome]

Fire affects phone lines

Fire crews had to descend 30m to reach the tunnel and travel along it for 150m before getting to the fire.
Assistant divisional officer Ian Bailey, of Greater Manchester Fire Service, said: †œThe fire itself is not too serious and is now basically under control but reaching it was a problem.

†œThe firefighters needed breathing apparatus and were using a lot of air up by the time they reached the fire, so we had a high turnover of firefighters.

†œWe will have to ventilate the tunnel before BT engineers can go down there, so the disruption is likely to continue for some time.ââ‚ƚ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ�

Here is another link i forgot to add to the above post (more info on the fire).

And some interesting info here

Manchester Guardian is an underground telephone exchange in the centre of Manchester built in 1954. It is 112 feet (34m) below ground and cost £4 million to construct. The main tunnel, one thousand feet long and twenty-five feet wide (300m by 7m), lies below buildings in Back George Street, linking up to an anonymous and unmarked surface building containing the entrance lifts and ventilator shafts. There are also access shafts in the Rutherford telephone exchange in George Street.

Its purpose was to resist a Hiroshima sized twenty-kiloton atom bomb, and preserve essential communications links even if the centre of Manchester had been flattened.

A deep level tunnel system runs east and west from Guardian. A mile-long (1.3km) tunnel runs west to Salford, and a thousand-yard (700m) tunnel runs to Lockton Close in Ardwick, where a modernised ventilator building marks the south-eastern extension of the Manchester deep level tunnels.

In the event of an attack warning, Guardian's main entry shaft was to have been sealed by a thirty-five-ton concrete slab that could be positioned over the entrance. Staff could escape either by using built-in hydraulic jacks to lift the slab (if covered with debris) some weeks after attack, or via the deep level tunnels to Ardwick and Salford. Emergency stores contained six weeks' supply of food rations, and Guardian had its own artesian well, generators, fuel tanks, and artificial windows and scenery painted onto rest-room walls.

The exchange was to survive even if the city it served was destroyed.

The Manchester Guardian telephone exchange and deep level tunnels were one of several such systems built in the 50s. Similar installations can be found under London (Kingsway) & Birmingham (Anchor).