List of transportation fires

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

This is a list of transportation fires where a ship or other transportation has caught on fire.

List of transportation fires

Ship fires

See also: List of maritime disasters

• 1800 – British warship Queen Charlotte — 673 deaths
• 1840 – Steamship Lexington in Long Island Sound — 139 deaths
• 1865 – Sultana on the Mississippi River, near Memphis, Tennessee — 1,547 deaths
• 1893 – Freighter Cabo Machichaco in Santander, Spain — 500 deaths
• 1904 – Steamship General Slocum in New York City — 1,021 deaths
• 1906 – SS Hankow fire in Hong Kong — 130+ deaths (14 October)
• 1917 – Munitions ship Mont-Blanc burned, drifted and detonated in the Halifax Explosion — roughly 2,000 deaths
• 1924 – SS City of Singapore at Port Adelaide – 3 deaths, 13 injured
• 1934 – SS Morro Castle off Asbury Park, New Jersey — 137 deaths, ship gutted and beached
• 1941 – Attack on Pearl Harbor, sinking USS Arizona (BB-39) and several other ships; extensive fires generated aboard and around ships
• 1941 – SS Normandie in New York City, ship capsized and sank at pier
• 1944 – Bombay Explosion (1944) – SS Fort Stikine docked in Bombay, India underwent a fire which caused two explosions and set fire to the area killing around 800 people
• 1944 – Port Chicago disaster – SS E A Bryan docked in Port Chicago, California underwent massive explosions and fire while munitions were loaded. 320 people were killed and 390 were injured.
• 1947 – Texas City Disaster— two ships' cargoes of ammonium nitrate caught fire and exploded, killing 581, more than 5000 injured.
• 1947 – SS Xi'an in Hong Kong — 200 deaths
• 1949 – SS Noronic in Toronto, Ontario Canada — 118 to 139 deaths
• 1963 – Lakonia near Madeira burned — 128 deaths
• 1965 – SS Yarmouth Castle near Nassau, Bahamas — 90 deaths
• 1965 – Orient Trader in Toronto, Ontario, Canada— no deaths or injuries. Was towed from pier into harbour and was totally destroyed by fire. 1960 ORIENT TRADER, Orient Mid-East Great Lakes Services, Piraeus. 21st Jul.1965 Caught fire Toronto harbour, CTL. 1966 Scrapped Valencia.
• 1967 – USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin — 134 deaths.
• 1972 – RMS Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong, ship sank in harbour
• 1985 – MS Chidambaram off the Malabar coast of India — 34 deaths.
• 1987 – Doña Paz in the Philippines — an estimated 4,000 deaths
• 1990 – MS Scandinavian Star off Norway — 159 deaths
• 1991 – Moby Prince disaster in Livorno, Italy. 140 killed.
• 1994 – Achille Lauro near Somalia
• 2001 – MS Windoc in Allanburg, Ontario, Canada — Bridge lowered on the ship, this tore off the wheelhouse and funnel and caused a fire that burned out the aft cabins and engine room. No deaths.
• 2006 – Star Princess in the Caribbean — one death
• 2007 – Cutty Sark, 19th-century clipper in dry dock as a museum ship in Greenwich, London extensively damaged while undergoing restoration on May 21
• 2011 – MS Nordlys, Norwegian cruise ship, September 15, two deaths
• 2014 – MS Norman Atlantic in Strait of Otranto, Greece — 13 deaths (including two rescue crewmembers who died from an indirect result)

Train and rail fires

• 1903 – Paris Métro train fire kills 84
• 1913 – Ais Gill rail crash in England kills 14 chiefly through fire on September 1
• 1915 – Quintinshill rail crash in Scotland kills 227 chiefly through fire on May 22
• 1951 – Sakuragicho commuter train fire, Yokohama, Japan, 106 killed on April 24
• 1972 – Hokuriku railroad tunnel fire in Tsuruga, Japan, 31 killed and 637 injured
• 1974 – Magude train disaster on March 27 in Magude, Portuguese Mozambique, 70 killed and 200 injured
• 1978 – Taunton train fire on British Rail kills 12 on July 6
• 1984 – Summit tunnel fire in West Yorkshire, England
• 1987 – King's Cross Underground Station fire, London, England, 31 killed, 100 injured on November 18
• 1995 – 1995 Baku Metro fire kills over 200
• 1996 – Channel Tunnel fire between France and England on November 18
• 1998 – Yaounde train explosion fuel train explosion, kills 120 people
• 2000 – Kaprun disaster, Austrian funicular train fire, kills 155 people
• 2002 – Al Ayatt train disaster, Egypt
• 2002 – The Godhra train burning at Godhra, Gujarat, India took place which left 59 people dead leading to the 2002 Gujarat violence
• 2003 – Daegu subway fire in Daegu (South Korea) Train fire caused by arson killed at least 198 people and injured at least 147
• 2003 – Ladhowal train fire, India
• 2008 – Channel Tunnel fire, between France and England
• 2012 – Nellore train fire kills 32 passengers on the Tamil Nadu Express near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, India
• 2013 – Lac-Mégantic rail disaster kills 47 when an unattended 74-car freight train carrying crude oil rolled downhill and derailed. More than 30 buildings in the town's centre, roughly half of the downtown area, were destroyed.
• 2014 – Several tanker cars carrying crude oil caught fire along the James River in Lynchburg, Virginia.
• 2015 – Valhalla train crash, six killed after train collides with car at grade crossing

Bus fires

• 1988 – Carrollton, Kentucky, bus collision—27 deaths on May 14, one of the deadliest bus disasters in US history
• 1992 – Chien-Kang Bus Fire (健康幼稚園火燒車事件) – one bus carrying 50 kindergarten students, teachers, and parents caught fire at Taoyuan City (now Taoyuan District) on their way to the Leofoo Amusement Park, killing 23 and injuring 9
• 1997 – Bus fire, Guangdong, China – bus caught fire on expressway, killing 39 passengers.
• 2003 – Chun-Lung Bus Fire (尊龍客運高速公路火燒車事故)—A charter bus caught fire at Taipei County killing 6 and injuring 4
• 2006 – A bus caught fire on a street in Rio Grande, Brazil. 28 people were injured, but no-one was killed. The cause of the fire was a can of paint thinner under the driver's seat, which ignited following a short-circuit.
• 2007 – Comilla bus caught fire in Bangladesh, at least fifty-five killed on January 6.
• 2008 – Lower Saxony: A bus caught fire presumably due to a passenger smoking in the toilet on the A2 Autobahn (Expressway) in Germany, 20 killed on November 4
• 2008 – Boromo bus caught fire in Balé Province, Burkina Faso, sixty-seven killed on November 15
• 2008 – Firozabad bus caught fire in Uttar Pradesh, India, killing sixty-three on December 9.
• 2009 – Chengdu bus fire, a mass murder–suicide attack Chengdu, Sichuan, China, results in 27 deaths on June 5
• 2010 – During the Mount Carmel forest fire, a bus that was transporting prison guards was caught up in a wildfire as they made their way to evacuate a nearby prison, resulting in the death of 40 guards as flames overwhelmed the bus
• 2011 – Xinyang bus fire kills at least 41 people in Xinyang, Henan, China, on 22 July.
• 2013 – A bus fire in Xiamen, China, believed to be an act of arson, killed 47 and injured 30.
• 2014 – Colombia bus fire killed 32 children who had just attended a church service in the city of Fundación 18 May 2014.
• 2014 – Six people died and dozens were injured in a bus terminal fire near Seoul, South Korea on 26 May 2014.
• 2016 – Taoyuan City coach fire killing 24 Mainland Chinese tourists with its Taiwanese driver and tour guide.
• 2016 – New York State Adirondack Trailways bus destroyed by brake fire.
• 2018 – 52 passengers died in 2018 Kazakhstan bus fire, all Uzbek migrants travelling to Russia.

Road fires

• 1982 – Salang tunnel fire kills between 150 and 1,000 people in Afghanistan's only road tunnel
• 1982 – Caldecott Tunnel fire kills six and severely damages major road tunnel in Oakland, California
• 1999 – 1999 Mont Blanc Tunnel fire—39 deaths, caused by the cargo of a transport truck catching fire while in the tunnel

Tanker truck fires and explosions

• 1978 – Los Alfaques disaster kills 217 on a campsite near Tarragona, in Spain on July 11
• 2000 – Ibadan tanker truck explosion multiple car pile-up explodes 100–200 killed.
• 2009 – 2009 Kenyan oil spill ignition resulted in the deaths of at least 111 people and infliction of gruesome injuries to countless hundreds more on 31 January, following a road accident in Molo, Kenya.
• 2010 – Catastrophe of Sange in the Democratic Republic of the Congo caused at least 230 deaths and 196 injured.
• 2012 – Okobie road tanker explosion in Nigeria killed at least 95 people and injured 50 others.
• 2016 – Caphiridzange explosion in Mozambique resulted in 80 deaths.
• 2017 – Bahawalpur explosion in Pakistan killed 219 people.

Other fires

• 1916 – Black Tom explosion (fires led to the explosion)
• 1937 – Hindenburg disaster near Lakehurst, New Jersey
• 1955 – Le Mans 24 hour race disaster, Le Mans, France, over 80 killed on June 11
• 1967 – Apollo 1 burned during ground tests at Cape Canaveral January 27, 3 astronauts died
• 1973 – Kingman Explosion Propane tanker BLEVE incident kills 13, injures 107
• 1975 – Tent site at Mina, Saudi Arabia, 138 killed
• 2006 – Brand India Fair at Meerut Victoria Park fire, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, 100 killed on April 10

See also

List of fires