Kursha-2 (Russian: Ку́рша-2), named so after a road sign, was an industrial community in the Central Meshchyora, Ryazan Oblast, Russia.

The disaster caused more than 1,000 human deaths, making it the second-deadliest wildfire in recorded history, behind only the Peshtigo fire of 1871.

[2] The firestorm extended to the north, growing in intensity to become an aerial or crown fire, a fierce conflagration that consumes fuel from the forest's canopy.

That was when the villagers understood that the firestorm was heading straight at Kursha, which was 3 km away and surrounded by pine woodland.

Those who survived ran straight at the wall of fire and escaped with severe burns, while those who stayed at the train and in the ditch bordering the railway were all killed.

As the result of the firestorm, 1,200 died including woodcutters (some of which were hired from nearby villages), their families, railwaymen, and soldiers.

[1] The tragedy was intentionally poorly reported by Soviet media: only a few brief notes were made public; the only reminder of this event was a common grave near the ruins of the locomotive depot.

The settlement currently lies in ruins, and the sole resident of the area, as of 2006, was a 90-year-old woman who lost her mother and sisters to the fire and survived by escaping from the burning train with the help of another man into the flames.