The Ladhowal rail disaster on 23 May 2003, was a flash fire which began at 4am on the Frontier Mail train service in India, and engulfed three carriages before it could be extinguished.
Eyewitness A. D. Singh reported that he had seen the fire begin as a result of a dropped cigarette, whilst Safi Pitoliwali claims he saw electrical wiring in the toilet of the fourth carriage catch alight, but what ever the cause, the speed of the train combined with the open windows during the Indian summer to create an inferno, as air carried the fire back through three carriages in a massive burst of flame.
Most of the dead were killed in this initial burst, as doors were slammed shut by the gust, trapping the commuters inside, where they burnt to death.
Those that could dived under seats or leaped from the speeding train, but over fifty people were killed or critically injured in the first few seconds of the fire.
Officials later ruled out terrorism or sabotage, often the first suggestion in situations like this, instead reporting that a spark lit some spilled flammable liquid in the toilet of carriage number five, which was caught by the wind and ripped down the train.