Worst Industrial Disasters In History

Wednesday, Aug 19, 2020, 7:59 pm

By:Tony Williams

1.Texas City disaster

This disaster happened in 1947 and the explosion led to over 550 people being killed and over 3000 people being injured. The explosion took place on a ship that was carrying fertilizer and shards of metal were thrown over huge distances and structural damage in nearby buildings contributed to the number of casualties.

2.Oppau explosion

This happened in Germany and it led to almost 600 people being killed as well as over 2000 injured. The explosion took place at a silo that contained a couple of fertilizer chemicals, but due to the sheer amount of chemicals stored there it led to a massive explosion resulting in that huge loss of life.

3.Senghenydd Colliery

This is the worst mining industry disaster in the history of the United Kingdom after 439 workers died in an incident in 1913. It happened as the result of an explosion and it is still regarded as being one of the worse mining disasters anywhere in the world.

4.Ali Enterprises fire

In Karachi, 2012 over 250 people were killed when the Ali Enterprises factory went on fire. The reason why there was some more interest in it was due to the fact that the factory made cheap clothes for the Western world.

5.Piper Alpha

This was an oil rig in the North Sea that exploded and went on fire in 1988. It resulted in the death of 167 men and it is still regarded as being the biggest loss of life on an oil rig as well as the biggest disaster with regard to the impact it had on the industry.

6.Amoco Cadiz

This was a ship that managed to sink in 1978 and which ultimately led to over 1.6 million barrels of oil spilling into the ocean. This is still regarded as being the biggest spill of its kind in history by some distance, which is no surprise when you look at how much oil was lost.

7.French mine explosion

In 1906, an explosion at a French coal mine led to just over 1000 people being killed. It was, and indeed still is, seen as being one of the worst industrial incidents in the country and the number was higher due to the poor working conditions of the time.

8.Nova Scotia

In 1910, a ship that was heading into Halifax harbor and carrying explosives crashed and the explosives were ignited. It led to approximately 2000 people dying as a result and even though it may be argued it was not in an industrial setting it was still carrying items that were to be used in mining.

9.Benxi

This was in China and it was a disaster that led to over 1500 people being killed. What happened in this instance was that there was a huge explosion in a coal mine in 1942, but such were the numbers of people that lived and worked in the area that there were more deaths than there perhaps should have been.

10.Bangladesh factory collapse

This happened in 2013 and it resulted in the death of over 1000 workers. The building was overcrowded, poorly built, and was just an accident waiting to happen and the fact that over 2500 people were saved shows that it could have actually been a lot worse.

11.Bopal

This was a huge disaster in India in 1984 when a poisonous gas was released into the air by accident leading to an estimated 15,000 deaths and over 500,000 people falling ill as a result. The land was also then contaminated leading to more problems.

12.Chernobyl

This is of course world famous as it was a nuclear industrial disaster that took place in 1986. The United Nations states that the death toll could have been as high as 9000 people, but that does not take into account the suffering and illnesses that could be attributed to it over the years.

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