The Japanese National Railways experienced an unprecedented train fire accident at the Hokuriku tunnel in 1972. After the accident, a number of investigations and researches have been carried out concerning the characteristics of fire and countermeasures against it and the results have been applied to the Seikan tunnel, the longest tunnel in Japan. In view of the recent fire accident occurred in the Channel Tunnel, we reviewed researches on the behavior of smoke and hot gases in a long railway tunnel which is important for emergency ventilation at a railway tunnel fire.