350 passengers died in the fire

A fire in Egypt killed 350 passengers on the Cairo-Luxor-Aswan train. Most of the victims of the unprecedented tragedy were heading to their relatives to celebrate Eid al-Adha.

The Cairo-Luxor-Aswan passenger train left the Egyptian capital at 11 pm local time on Tuesday and was due to arrive in Aswan at 11 am on Wednesday. However, at about 2 o'clock in the morning a fire broke out in one of the carriages. Passengers did not immediately realize that the loud screams and noise were not caused by the usual fight on long-distance trains, but by a fire. Only when people in smoking clothes ran down the corridor did everyone realize that the train was on fire. Some passengers, succumbing to panic, rushed to the open windows and jumped from the train at full speed. But only a few of them survived, as the train was moving at high speed. Rescuers later found about 20 bodies along the railroad tracks.
The driver did not notice the fire immediately, and the train engulfed in fire drove another 6 km, fanning the flames, until it was stopped in the village of Reqa-al-Gharbiya, 70 km from Cairo. By this time, seven of the 11 cars of the train had metal frames left. The carriages were crowded with people traveling to the south of the country to spend several days visiting relatives during the Eid al-Adha holiday (the holiday of the end of fasting). Each carriage was designed to carry approximately 150 people, but the number of passengers was double that figure, with police estimating that the train carried more than 3,000 people in total. As survivors later said, the train was so full that many had to sit on the floor.
25 fire crews and 30 ambulance crews were brought to the scene of the tragedy. According to one of the policemen, the scene of the tragedy resembled hell: burnt bodies lay in piles in the aisles of the cars, of which only platforms and iron beams remained. In those carriages that were not so badly burned, firefighters recovered bodies from under the seats, where panicked passengers tried to hide from the fire.
The fire was finally extinguished only a few hours later. The victims were hospitalized in hospitals in Cairo and nearby towns. The passengers who did not suffer serious burns were accommodated in nearby mosques and provided with blankets, food and hot drinks. Railway communication between Cairo and the southern regions of Egypt has been interrupted for an indefinite period.
Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Obeid, who visited the scene of the tragedy, told reporters that the fire was apparently caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder in one of the portable stoves that passengers usually take with them on the road to heat food right on the train. The Prime Minister assured that the cause of the fire could not be a technical malfunction of the train, since “all trains are in good condition and regularly undergo full and thorough inspection.” Meanwhile, it is known that the state transport agency suffers from an excess of employees, lack of investment, outdated equipment and is famous for poor quality of service. To keep ticket prices at a level that the poor, who primarily use the trains, can afford, the agency relies almost entirely on government subsidies.
The Eid al-Adha holiday, which the passengers of the ill-fated train so wanted to attend, is associated with the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where in 1997, by tragic coincidence, 318 pilgrims died as a result of a fire that broke out in a tent city due to the same tiles.

ALENA Kommersant-MIKLASHEVSKAYA

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 31 dated February 21, 2002, page 12

Internal combustion train