Salang Tunnel fire

The Salang tunnel fire occurred on 3 November 1982 in Afghanistan's Salang tunnel during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Details are uncertain, but the incident may have been the deadliest known road accident, and one of the deadliest fires of modern times.

Overview
The Salang tunnel, which opened the famous Salang Pass (or Kotal-e Salang) to motor traffic, was built by Soviet engineers and eased traffic across the Hindu Kush mountain range that separates northern and southern Afghanistan.

Very few facts are known about the fire. All information available constitutes little more than hearsay, in part because the Soviet Army was not inclined to reveal massive losses during wartime. Most sources agree that it involved a Soviet Army convoy traveling southward through the tunnel.

Initial reports described fuel and ordnance explosions, and estimates of the death toll were as high as 2,700. The death toll was subsequently revised downwards many times.

FROM SOVIET MILITARY DATABASE: On 3 November 1982 two military convoys (2211 and 2212) collided in the Salang tunnel causing a traffic jam. There were no fire or explosions. 64 Soviet soldiers and 112 Afghan people were killed by carbon monoxide emitted by idling engines.

Another report from a traveller, who has been to the region, sounds very different from this official version: A fuel tanker in a military convoy exploded inside (the cause of the explosion remains somewhat in doubt with the Russians still claiming it was an accident and the Mujahideen still claiming it was a successful attack) the Salang Tunnel, unleashing a chain reaction of fiery explosions and death. Drivers of cars, trucks and buses evidently continued to enter the tunnel after the explosion. Soviet troops, fearing that the explosion might have been a rebel attack, closed off both ends with tanks, trapping many inside. Some burned to death; others were killed by smoke and by carbon monoxide escaping from vehicles whose drivers kept their engines idling to stay warm in the freezing cold. As many as 700 Soviet troops and 2,000 Afghan soldiers and civilians may have died.

On 23 February 1980 another similar accident killed 16 Soviet soldiers in the Salang tunnel.

External links and sources

 * Summary from Frankfurt International School
 * Casualty data from 2001 (of unknown accuracy)
 * Tunnel length and altitude
 * BBC News, Inside the Salang tunnel, 2002
 * BBC News, Report on the state of the Salang tunnel, 2002