I can't recall why, but today had me looking at information about the fire at London's Kings Cross Station. It was in 1987 and thirty one people were killed. Essentially it was caused by a dropped lit match down beside a timber escalator which ignited a build up of grease and other flammable material. Quite predictable and the fire could have easily been prevented by enforcing no smoking bans and keeping the underside of escalators clean. What wasn't known about was the 'trench effect' where fire could burn on a 30 degree angle. Add this to odd ventilation air currents, solvent based paint, the tube air pressure from trains and the fire engulfed a ticket hall resulting in the disaster the fire became.
Another fire disaster, also in England, happened during a football/soccer match in Bradford in 1985. Again it was predictable, principally caused by an accumulation of rubbish under an old timber grandstand. I recall seeing this, a video fruitlessly restricted, on a work training course. I can't recall the relevance to my work, but it was pretty horrifying. A bit of reading tells me most of the 56 who died did so because of locked exits, turnstiles and fences. The fire took only four minutes to engulf the stand.
Fire really scares me. Not so much bush fires. You get some warning about them if you have your wits about you. No, it is the random, the bad luck, the trapped in a confined area, the ones where authorities are supposed to protect you but have let you down. These are the ones I fear.