French Train Fire.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Twelve dead in France train fire.

Today's hardly been a slow news day, so this story is getting buried a bit. From what I can gather from the BBC report, it sounds remarkably similar to the fire at Taunton 20 years ago, when a small fire in a heater killed ten people by carbon monoxide poisoning.

I remember the initial furore over the fact that some of the train doors were locked, until it was revealed that all the dead were still in their cabins, poisoned in their sleep. Everyone that actually woke up made it out.

Initial reports suggest today's French tragedy was also caused by a faulty heater; but since five Americans are among the dead I expect at least some warbloggers to blame this on 'Islamofascist' terrorism.

Update
Steve Karlson asks what what there was to burn in what looked like a very modern steel-bodied sleeping car. From the Guardian report on the disaster:

The sleeping car was built in 1964 but had been extensively renovated in 1999 and overhauled again last year, Deutsche Bundesbahn said, adding that its age would not in itself have been a factor in the blaze.

I recall reading somewhere that the coach still had wooden interior panelling, which probably fed the fire. (Can't remember where, otherwise I would have provided a link)

In the Taunton fire I mentioned earlier, a pile of bed-linen had been placed on a heater in the end vestibule (which had inadequate guards). When the heater came on after the train was connected up to the locomotive's power supply, the linen caught fire. It was the smoke from this, in a confined space, that caused the carbon monoxide that killed the ten fatalities. I don't think the fire itself spread much beyond the vestibule. Like Nancy, the smoke was the killer