Chronology of Industrial Disasters

Compiled BY: George Draffan

This is a list of major industrial disasters. The list does not include deaths and destruction due to dangerous workplaces and unsafe products. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that 10,000 deaths occur each year due to routine industrial accidents; another 100,000 deaths occur due to occupational disease; and 30,000 deaths and 20,000,000 serious injuries due to unsafe consumer products. This list also does not include an estimated 90 percent of cancers which may be environmentally induced (that is, from industrial products and by-products). The list also does not include wars over petroleum and other natural resources, or deaths and destruction due to accidents at weapons plants or armories.

Year	Location	Industry	Description
2004	Scotland	plastic factory	ICL Plastics plc's Stockline Plastics plant in Glasgow explodes, killing 9 and injuring more than 40.
2001	France	fertilizer factory	September 21 explosion at Azote de France (AZF) agricultural chemicals factory near Toulouse. 31 people dead, at least 650 people hospitalized.
1998	France	fertilizer factory	Explosion at Azote de France (AZF) fertilizer factory near Toulouse.
1998	Nigeria	oil pipeline	Pipeline at Jesse Nigeria exploded, instantly killing more than 500 people and severely burning hundreds more. Up to 2000 people had been lining up with buckets and bottles to scoop up oil. The fire spread and engulfed the nearby villages of Moosqar and Oghara, killing farmers and villagers sleeping in their homes. Shell, AGIP, Elf-Aquitaine, Chevron and Mobil split their oil revenues with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. http://jinx.sistm.unsw.edu.au/~greenlft/1998/338/338p23b.htm
1993	Thailand	toy factory	Killed 188 women and injured over 400. Peter Symonds, Industrial Inferno : The Story of the Thai Toy Factory Fire (Mehring Books, 1997).
1989	USA Alaska	oil tanker	Exxon Valdez tanker spills 11 million gallons of crude oil into Price William Sound.
1986	Ukraine	nuclear	Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic chemical explosion at the station's fourth reactor and an uncontrolled graphite fire that followed led to the release of more than 450 radionuclides, comprising about 3.5 per cent of the fuel stored in the reactor core. Official reports put the immediate death toll at 31, but it is widely believed that many more died in the first hours and weeks after the explosion. The Ukrainian government has estimated the number of deaths among clean-up workers alone as 7,000-8,000. (David R. Marples, in The Long Road to Recovery: Community Responses to Industrial Disaster, edited by James K. Mitchell (United Nations University Press, 1996). http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu21le/uu21le00.htm#Contents
1984	India Bhopal	toxics	Explosion at Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal India released cloud of methyl isocyanate, killing at least 2,000 and injured 50,000. More on Bhopal disaster.
1982	USA Missouri	chemical waste	In 1996-97, 265,354 tons of soil and other dioxin-contaminated material from Times Beach and 26 other sites in eastern Missouri had been incinerated. In 1982, Times Beach's 2,242 residents were evacuated after dioxin found in soil.
1979	USA Pennsylvania	nuclear	Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Over 140,000 people evacuated within a 15 mile area.
1978	France	oil tanker	Amoco Cadiz tanker runs aground off the coast of France, spilling 1.6 million barrels of crude oil.
1977	USA New York	chemical waste	Hooker Chemical Company used uncompleted canal for dumping by-products. Once the canal was filled with waste, the land was covered over and sold to the Niagara Falls city school board for $1.00 and a school and subdivision of homes was on top. The chemicals were detected leaking out of the site in 1977 and residents were eventually evacuated.
1976	USA Massachusetts	oil spill	Argo Merchant runs aground on the Nantucket Shoals off Cape Cod (Massachusetts USA), spilling 7.6 million gallons of No. 6 fuel oil.
1976	Italy	chemical factory	"Seveso" disaster. Explosion at ICMESA chemical plant on the outskirts of Meda, a small town about 20 kilometres north of Milan, Italy, releasing a toxic cloud containing TCDD dioxin; especially affected were Seveso, Meda, Desio, and Cesano Maderno.
1972	USA Idaho	coal mine	1972 Sunshine mine at Kellogg.
1972	USA West Virginia	coal mine	Dam failure at Buffalo mine in Saunders kills 125.
1968	USA West Virginia	coal mine	Explosion and fire killed 78 men at the Consol No 9 mines at Farmington, West Virginia.
1967	Russia	toxics	Accident at Chelyabinsk (Mayak) nuclear complex near Kyshtym (series of accidents since it was built in the 1940s) http://www.logtv.com/chelya/default.html
1957	England	nuclear	Fire at Windscale (Sellafield) plant where plutonium for bombs was processed.
1957	Russia	toxics	Accident at Chelyabinsk (Mayak) nuclear complex near Kyshtym (series of accidents since it was built in the 1940s) http://www.logtv.com/chelya/default.html
1956	Japan Minamata	chemical waste	Minamata disease officially recognized. Mercury poisoning that developed in people who ate contaminated seafood taken from Minamata Bay and adjacent coastal waters in the period after World War II when methyl mercury was dumped into the sea as an unwanted by-product of acetaldehyde processing at the Chisso industrial plant in Minamata, Japan.
1951	USA Illinois	coal mine	Explosion at Orient No. 2 mine in West Frankfort kills 119.
1947	USA Texas	fertilizer ships	On April 16, the SS Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, exploded in the Texas City harbor, followed the next morning by the explosion of the SS High Flyer. The disaster kills almost 576 and injuring several thousand. The explosion was felt 75 miles away in Port Arthur, and created a 15-foot tidal wave.
1947	USA Illinois	coal mine	Explosion at No. 5 mine in Centralia kills 111.
1928	USA Pennsylvania	coal mine	Explosion at Mather No. 1 mine kills 195.
1924	USA West Virginia	coal mine	Explosion at Benwood mine kills 119.
1924	USA Utah	coal mine	Explosion at No. 2 mine in Castle Gate kills 172.
1923	USA New Mexico	coal mine	Explosion at Stag Canon No. 1 mine in Dawson kills 120.
1917	USA Montana	coal mine	Butte coal mine fire mine killed 63.
1917	USA Colorado	coal mine	Explosion at Hastings mine kills 121.
1917	USA Montana	coal mine	Fire at Granite Mountain mine in Butte kills 163.
1915	USA West Virginia	coal mine	Explosion at Layland No. 3 mine kills 115.
1914	USA West Virginia	coal mine	Explosion at Eccles No. 5 & No. 6 mine kills 181.
1913	USA New Mexico	coal mine	Explosion at Stag Canon No. 2 mine in Dawson kills 263.
1911	USA New York	sweatshop	Fire in the Asch Building in lower Manhattan, New York, killed 146 of the 500 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, mostly young female immigrants from Europe who were trapped in the building. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire
1911	USA Alabama	coal mine	Explosion at Banner mine in Littleton kills 128.
1909	USA Illinois	coal mine	Fire at Cherry mine kills 259.
1908	USA Pennsylvania	coal mine	Explosion at Rachel and Agnes mine in Marianna kills 154.
1907	USA West Virginia	coal mine	Fairmont Coal mine at Monongah exploded killing 362 men and boys. (US coal mine fatalities in this decade exceeded 2,000 annually).
1907	USA West Virginia	coal mine	Explosions at Monongah No. 6 and 8 mines kill 362.
1907	USA Pennsylvania	coal mine	Explosion at Darr mine in Jacobs Creek kills 239.
1905	USA Alabama	coal mine	Explosion at Virginia City mine kills 112.
1904	USA Pennsylvania	coal mine	Explosion at Harwick mine in Cheswick kills179.
1903	USA Wyoming	coal mine	Explosion at Hanna No. 1 mine kills 169.
1902	USA Pennsylvania	coal mine	Explosion at Rolling Mill mine at Johnstown kils112.
1902	USA Tennessee	coal mine	Explosion at Fraterville mine at Coal Creek kills184.
1900	USA Utah	coal mine	200 killed at Winter Quarters No. 4 Mine near Scofield, Utah.
1892	USA Oklahoma	coal mine	Explosion at No. 11 mine in Krebs kills 100.
1891	USA Pennsylvania	coal mine	109 killed at explosion at Mammouth coal mine in Mount Pleasant.
1884	USA Virginia	coal mine	Explosion at Laurel mine in Pocahontas kills 112.
1869	USA Pennsylvania	coal mine	110 killed in fire at Avondale coal mine in Plymouth.
1867	USA Virginia	coal mine	Explosion at Bright Hope mine at Winterpock kills 69.
1830 to 2000	USA	mining accidents	Between 1830 and 2000, 716 mining accidents in the United States killed 15,183 people. Only mine disasters killing more than 100 people are listed here; a comprehensive list of mining disasters is at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/data/disall.html