Historical data indicate that tunnel fires often cause casualties and damage to both vehicles and tunnels. These severe consequences suggest that (1) humans seldom effectively learn from history, and (2) people lack optimal safety response strategies for tunnel fires. To investigate the root causes of accidental tunnel fires and learn from them, we first surveyed the literature on historical tunnel accidents and described the common timeline of accidental tunnel fires. We employed systems thinking, based on the past research, to depict a causal loop diagram of common accidental tunnel fires. We arrived at the following three findings: (1) the literature review proved that the causes of tunnel fires are far more complex than other types of fires, and the damage they generate is greater; (2) in the context of systems thinking, accidental tunnel fires involve many causal relationships which are both continuous and dynamic, including at least three systems, namely vehicles, tunnel control, and safety response; (3) the mental models “the experience of the operators at the tunnel operation control center is just as vital as the safety response” and “safety is more critical than the traffic volume in the tunnel”, can strengthen safety response systems and ensure safe driving in tunnels. Although the structure of each tunnel and the characteristics of each fire differ and present different causal relationships, this study elucidated lessons from accidental tunnel fires and provided required messages for establishing effective safety measures. The results of this study can be used to establish systems thinking models of tunnel fires and can serve as a reference for policy planning and establishing standard operating procedures for safety responses.

历史数据表明，隧道火灾经常造成人员伤亡，并对车辆和隧道造成破坏。这些严重的后果表明：（1）人们很少能有效地从历史中学习，（2）人们缺乏针对隧道火灾的最佳安全响应策略。为了调查意外隧道火灾的根本原因并从中汲取教训，我们首先调查了有关历史隧道事故的文献，并描述了意外隧道火灾的常见时间表。基于过去的研究，我们运用系统思维来描绘常见意外隧道火灾的因果关系图。我们得出以下三个发现：（1）文献综述证明，隧道火灾的起因远比其他类型的火灾复杂，并且造成的破坏更大；（2）在系统思考的背景下，隧道意外火灾涉及许多连续且动态的因果关系，包括至少三个系统，即车辆，隧道控制和安全响应；（3）“隧道运行控制中心操作人员的经验与安全响应同样重要”和“安全比隧道的通行量更为关键”的思维模式，可以加强安全响应系统，确保安全。在隧道中行驶。尽管每个隧道的结构和每种火灾的特征都不同，并且呈现出不同的因果关系，但本研究阐明了意外隧道火灾的教训，并为建立有效的安全措施提供了必要的信息。