USSR's biggest hell in peacetime: 1989 Ufa natural gas explosion

Two overcrowded trains, a mammoth explosion of natural gas that took place on a damaged pipeline and more than 600 fatalities. This is the aftermath of the largest railway disaster on the Trans-Siberian Railway that occurred in the area of the city of Ufa on June 3-4 overnight in 1989.  A rupture in the pipeline Western Siberia-Ural-Volga region, which passed along the railway, formed on the stretch between railway stations of Uglu-Telyak (Bashkiria) and Asha (Chelyabinsk region). The leak was not detected and fixed in a timely manner, which caused liquefied gas liquids to accumulate in the lowlands adjacent to the railway embankment for months, thus creating a flammable cloud.  On the night of June 4, two passenger trains were traveling towards each other in this place: Novosibirsk-Adler and Adler-Novosibirsk (Adler is a resort town on the Black Sea - ed.). There were about 1300 people in both trains. The first train was taking its passengers for holidays in Southern Russia, while the other one was taking holiday-makers home.