Worst Industrial Accidents in History
Updated September 9, 2022 |
Infoplease Staff
The following table includes information about the worst industrial disasters in history.
| Year | Day | Incident | Location | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 04/24 | Rana Plaza, a building containing several factories, collapses | Savar, Bangladesh | more than 1,100 |
| 1984 | 12/02 | 42 tons of lethal methyl isocyanate leak from the Union Carbide pesticide plant |
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India | 2,259 (immediately) An estimated 25,000 are believed to have died since from the exposure |
| 1942 | 04/26 | A coal dust and gas explosion in a mine | Benxihu Colliery, Benxi Liaoning, China | 1,549 |
| 1986 | 04/26 | Explosion during an unauthorized test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant | Pripyat, Ukraine | 50 due to radiation 3,940 due to radiation induced cancer and leukemia |
| 1947 | 04/16 | Fire near 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate on S.S. Grandcamp causes explosion | Port of Texas City, Texas, USA | 581 |
| 1921 | 9/21 | Explosion at fertilizer silo at a BASF plant | Oppau, Germany | 500-600 dead, 2000 injured |
| 1984 | 11/19 | Explosions at a Liquid Petroleum Gas tank farm | San Juanico, Mexico | 500 dead, thousands injured |
| 1906 | 03/10 | Coal dust explosion | Courrieres, France | 1,099 |
| 1976 | 07/10 | ICMESA, a chemical manufacturing plant, releases dioxins (TCDD) | Seveso, Italy | 3,300 farm animals 80,000 animals are later slaughtered, around 200 people suffer symptoms of exposure |
| 2015 | 08/12 | Explosions at a storage station in the Port of Tianjin | Binhai, Tianjin, China | 173 |
| 1944 | 7/17 | Munitions stores explode at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine | Port Chicago, California, USA | 320 |
| 2018 | 7/23 | A hydroelectric dam collapses during construction, causing massive flooding | Champasak Province, Laos | 40 dead, 100 missing, 6,600 displaced |
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