The 1982 Salang Tunnel fire occurred on 3 November 1982 in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Salang Tunnel The Salang Tunnel ( prs, تونل سالنگ ''Tūnel-e Sālang'', ps, د سالنگ تونل ''Da Sālang Tūnel'') is a tunnel in Afghanistan, located at the Salang Pass in the Hindu Kush mountains, between the Parwan Province, Parwan and B ...

during the

Soviet occupation of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. Details are uncertain and officially the number of casualties was recorded as between 168–176

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

Afghan soldier The Army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army and the Afghan Army, is the army, land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can ...

s and

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

s. Despite this, contemporary

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

media said the incident may have been the deadliest known road accident, and one of the deadliest

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

s of modern times, with the death toll estimated at 2,700 to 3,000 people. It is one of the deadliest road accidents in history.

Background

The Salang Tunnel, which allows motor traffic to bypass the famous

Salang Pass The Salang Pass ( ps, د سالنګ لاره; prs, كتل سالنگ ''Kutal-i Salang'', el. ) is the primary mountain pass connecting northern Afghanistan with Parwan Province, with onward connections to Kabul Province, southern Afghanistan, ...

(or Kotal-e Salang), was built by Soviet engineers in 1964 and eased traffic across the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Provinc ...

mountain range that separates northern and southern Afghanistan. Prior to the 1982 fire, on 23 February 1980,

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

buildup killed 16 Soviet soldiers in the Salang Tunnel.

Fire

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. Neither the

nor

Afghan government The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...

s confirmed any incident occurred. Most sources agree that it involved a Soviet Army convoy traveling southward through the tunnel. According to Soviet Army records, on 3 November 1982, two military convoys (2211 and 2212) collided in the Salang tunnel causing a traffic jam, but no fire or explosion.

Victims

Initial reports described fuel and ordnance

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...

s, and estimates of the death toll were as high as 2,700. Shortly after the event, Western diplomats indicated that a collision with a fuel truck initiated the fire in the tunnel that led to the catastrophe, resulting in the death of as many as 700 Soviet soldiers and 400 to 2,000 Afghan civilians. People died either from fire or of asphyxiation. The death toll was subsequently revised downwards many times. Fifty-six to 64 Soviet soldiers and 112

Afghans Afghans ( ps, افغانان, translit=afghanan; Persian/ prs, افغان ها, translit=afghānhā; Persian: افغانستانی, romanized: ''Afghanistani'') or Afghan people are nationals or citizens of Afghanistan, or people with ancestry f ...

were killed by carbon monoxide emitted by idling engines. The names of soldiers who died in the incident can be found in «''The Book of remembrance of soviet soldiers fallen in Afghanistan''» (russian: Книга памяти о советских войнах, погибших в Афганистане) which can be foun
here
US military analysts placed the casualty figure at 100 to 200 Soviet and Afghan soldiers. Some burned to death; others were killed by smoke and by carbon monoxide from vehicles whose drivers kept their engines idling to stay warm in the freezing cold.

Aftermath

Afghan

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric na ...

s said they did not have any role in the explosion in the tunnel.

Notes

External links and sources