This article lists notable industrial disasters, disasters caused by industrial companies, either by accident, negligence or incompetence. They are a form of industrial accident where great damage, injury or loss of life is caused. 20
Other disasters can also be considered industrial disasters, if their causes are rooted in the products or processes of industry. For example, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was made more severe by the heavy concentration of lumber industry facilities, wood houses, and fuel and other chemicals in a small area.
The Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents is designed to protect people and the environment from industrial accidents. The Convention aims to prevent accidents from occurring, to reduce their frequency and severity, and to mitigate their effects. The Convention addresses primarily industrial accidents in one country that affect the population and the environment of another country.
Defense industry October 12, 1654: Delft Gunpowder Explosion, Delft, The Netherlands. A gunpowder depot in the center of Delft exploded, killed over 100 people, and destroyed a large part of the city center. August 31, 1794: , Paris, France. 530–1,000 people killed in the explosion of Château de Grenelle's gunpowder depot. July 14, 1847: Faversham Guncotton Explosion. Faversham, United Kingdom. 18 killed during manufacture of guncotton. September 17, 1862: Allegheny Arsenal explosion, Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. Three explosions killed 78 workers. The largest civilian disaster during the American Civil War. June 17, 1864: 1864 Washington Arsenal explosion in Washington, D.C. Exploded flares entered a nearby building which blew up when a barrel of gunpowder exploded, killing 21 women and injuring many others. May 25, 1865: Mobile magazine explosion, Mobile, Alabama. A warehouse containing 200 tons of powder and shells exploded, killing 300 and causing over $720,000 in property damage. August 11, 1871: Stowmarket Guncotton Explosion. Stowmarket, UK. During manufacture of guncotton, two explosions killed 28 and injured 70. April 2, 1916: Faversham Munitions Explosion. Faversham, UK. 200 tons of TNT caught fire, killing 115 people. December 6, 1917: The Halifax Explosion. Halifax, Canada. A ship loaded with about 9,000 tons of high explosives destined for France caught fire after a collision in Halifax harbour, and exploded. The explosion killed about 2,000 and injured about 9,000. July 1, 1918 National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell. 134 workers were killed and 250 injured when eight tons of TNT detonated at a munitions factory at the village of Chilwell, now a suburb of Nottingham, UK. October 4, 1918: T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant explosion. An ammunition plant in Sayreville, New Jersey, exploded, killing approximately 100 people, destroying 300 buildings and causing $18 million in damages. March 1, 1924: 1924 Nixon Nitration Works disaster. A plant for processing ammonium nitrate in Edison, New Jersey, exploded, killing 24 people, injuring 100 and destroying several buildings. July 10, 1926: Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. 600,000 lbs. of explosives were detonated by a lightning strike. 187 of 200 buildings in the arsenal were destroyed and debris was found as far as 20 miles away. Damage of nearly US$1,000,000,000 in 2022 dollars. April 14, 1944: Bombay docks explosion. A British freighter SS Fort Stikine carrying 1,400 tons of explosives and 240 tons of weapons (torpedoes and mines) caught fire due to improper storage, resulting in two massive explosions killing some 800–1,300 people. The explosion also led to fires in many parts of the city and the docks needed months of repair work to function again. July 17, 1944: Port Chicago Disaster. A munitions explosion that killed 320 people occurred at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California. Nov 27, 1944: RAF Fauld Explosion. Explosion of 3,500–4,000 tonnes of ordnance in an underground munitions store killed 70 people. October 1957: The Windscale fire, the worst nuclear accident in the UK's history, released substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area at Windscale, Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria). The incident caused about 100–240 cancer deaths. August 9, 1965: Searcy missile silo fire, Arkansas. 53 contract workers were killed during a fire at a Titan missile silo. The cause of the fire was determined to be a welding rod damaging a hydraulic hose carrying Aerozine 50 fuel. This allowed the hypergolic fuel vapors to spread throughout the silo, which were then ignited by an open flame. April 13, 1976: Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion. An explosion in a munitions factory in Lapua, Finland, killed 40 workers. May 5, 1983: "6 Martie" Ammunition Factory in Zărnești, Romania. An explosion in the production facilities inside the factory completely destroyed two buildings, killing 37 people and injuring more than 300. April 10, 1988: Ojhri Camp, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. A military storage center exploded, killing more than 90 people. June 23, 1995: Grmeč factory explosion in Zemun, FR Yugoslavia. 11 workers were killed and 10 severely injured during illegal secret production of rocket fuel. July 11, 2011: Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion, Cyprus. The disaster occurred when 98 containers of gunpowder exploded; 13 people were killed including the base captain, 3 commanders, twin brothers serving there as marines, and 6 firefighters. 62 people were injured and the explosion knocked out the island's power station for days. October 10, 2025: 2025 Tennessee manufacturing plant explosion. 16 workers were killed when a building exploded at a facility belonging to Accurate Energetic Systems, which manufactures explosives for the US Department of Defense.
Energy industry
March 1928: The St. Francis Dam in the US state of California failed due to poor engineering and a lack of understanding the soil conditions. At least 431 people died in the subsequent flood, in what was one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and the third-greatest loss of life in California history. May 1962: The Centralia mine fire in the US state of Pennsylvania began when a surface fire accidentally ignited the mine's shallow coal vein, forcing the gradual evacuation of the Centralia borough. The fire burns today under the abandoned settlement. October 1963: The Vajont Dam overflow, caused by a massive landslide, destroyed several villages and towns and caused 1,917 deaths in northern Italy. The accident was anticipated by numerous warnings and signs of danger disregarded by the electrical company and government. March 4, 1965: The Natchitoches explosion: A 32-inch gas transmission pipeline north of Natchitoches, Louisiana, belonging to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, exploded and burned from stress corrosion cracking, killing 17 people. At least 9 others were injured, and seven homes 450 feet (140 m) from the rupture were destroyed. The same pipeline had exploded on May 9, 1955, just 930 feet (280 m) from the 1965 failure. March 1967: The supertanker was shipwrecked off the west coast of Cornwall, England, causing an environmental disaster. This was the first major oil spill at sea. August 1975: The Banqiao Dam failed in the Henan Province of China due to extraordinarily heavy precipitation from the remnants of Typhoon Nina and poor construction quality of the dam, which was built during the Great Leap Forward. The flood immediately killed over 100,000 people, and another 150,000 died of subsequent epidemic diseases and famine, bringing the total death toll to around 250,000 and making it the worst technical disaster ever. March 16, 1978: The Amoco Cadiz, a VLCC owned by the company Amoco sank near the northwest coast of France, resulting in the spilling of 68,684,000 US gallons of crude oil (1,635,000 barrels). This is the largest oil spill from an oil tanker in history. January 8, 1979: The Whiddy Island disaster, also known as the Betelgeuse incident, occurred around 1:00 am, when the oil tanker Betelgeuse exploded in Bantry Bay, at the offshore jetty for the oil terminal at Whiddy Island, Ireland. The explosion and resulting fire claimed the lives of 50 people (42 French nationals, 7 Irish nationals, and 1 British national). March 28, 1979: Three Mile Island accident. Partial nuclear meltdown near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Mechanical failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve in the primary system, allowed large amounts of reactor coolant to escape. Plant operators initially did not recognize the coolant loss, resulting in a partial meltdown. The reactor was brought under control only after up to 481 PBq (13 million curies) of radioactive gases released into the atmosphere. June 3, 1979: Ixtoc oil spill. The Ixtoc I exploratory oil well suffered a blowout resulting in the third-largest oil spill and the second-largest accidental spill in history. March 1980: The Alexander L. Kielland, a Norwegian semi-submersible drilling rig, capsized while working in the Ekofisk oil field, killing 123 people. November 20, 1980: A Texaco oil rig drilled into a salt mine transforming freshwater Lake Peigneur into a saltwater lake. February 15, 1982: Newfoundland, Canada. The mobile offshore oil rig Ocean Ranger was struck by a rogue wave off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada and sank with the loss of all 84 crew. December 19, 1982: The Tacoa disaster, an immense boilover from a fuel oil tank within the premises of a thermal power plant. It caused about 150 fatalities, including firefighters, media workers and bystanders. January 7, 1983: An explosion in Newark, New Jersey was felt as far away as 100–130 miles from the epicenter, but only claimed one life, and injured 22–24 people. July 23, 1984: Romeoville, Illinois, Union Oil refinery explosion killed 19 people. November 19, 1984: San Juanico Disaster. A series of boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions (BLEVEs) at a liquefied petroleum gas tank farm killed more than 500 and injured thousands in San Juan Ixhuatepec, Mexico. April 26, 1986: Chernobyl disaster. At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Soviet Union, (modern-day Ukraine) a test on reactor number four went out of control, resulting in a nuclear meltdown. The ensuing steam explosion and radiation killed up to 50 people with estimates of between 4,000 and several hundred thousand additional cancer deaths over time, although this has not yet been observed and was estimated based on the contested linear no-threshold model. Nuclear fallout was detected as far away as Canada. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, covering portions of Belarus and Ukraine surrounding Pripyat, remains contaminated and mostly uninhabited. Pripyat was evacuated and remains as a ghost town, although teeming with wildlife. May 5, 1988: Norco, Louisiana, Shell Oil refinery explosion. Hydrocarbon gas escaped from a corroded pipe in a catalytic cracker and was ignited. Louisiana State Police evacuated 2,800 residents from nearby neighborhoods. 7 workers were killed and 42 injured. The total cost arising from the Norco blast is estimated at US$706 million. July 6, 1988: Piper Alpha disaster. An explosion and resulting fire on a North Sea oil production platform killed 167 men. The total insured loss was about US$3.4 billion. To date it is the world's worst offshore oil disaster in lives lost and impact to industry.