Gas Stove Blamed for Egypt Train Fire

Prosecutors said Saturday that a portable gas stove caused a train fire that killed 361 people last month, and they charged 11 railway officials with negligence in Egypt’s worst rail disaster.

Fire ripped through seven carriages of a crowded passenger train in February, the worst accident in 150 years of Egyptian rail history. The blazing train rolled on for several miles after the fire broke out, the wind fanning the flames.

Prosecutors said they had charged 11 medium- to low-ranking rail officials with negligence and mistakes that led to the deaths. The officials were also charged with ignoring railroad regulations.

Transportation Minister Ibrahim Demeri resigned after the blaze.

Prosecutors told a news conference that the train’s 16 overcrowded carriages were ferrying 4,000 people south from Cairo to the countryside when the fire broke out from a small stove.

Passengers often use portable gas stoves to brew tea or coffee on trains.

Prosecutors said flammable material inside the train, including wooden seats, quickly fed the flames, which engulfed seven of the rail cars.

They said that the train did not have enough fire extinguishers and that the ones that were there did not work properly.

The train was so overcrowded that passengers were not able to activate emergency brakes and warnings that would have alerted the driver and stopped the train, they added.

Passengers, many of whom were traveling home to spend a Muslim holiday with family, jumped from the windows and doors of the rolling train. Others died trapped inside the third-class carriages, some behind metal window grilles.

Prosecutors said the fire caused $345,000 in material damage in addition to the loss of life.

Two of the 11 railway officials were also charged with falsifying official papers that said the train was fit to carry passengers.

Security sources said the defendants could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.