Ohio derailment is just the latest serious industrial accident in the U.S.

Abraham Smith

After a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and started a fire in East Palestine, Ohio, authorities ordered evacuations and conducted a controlled release of the chemicals.

The February 3 derailment sparked investigations and raised questions about how severe its impact will be on local residents and the environment.

Although no one was injured or killed as a result of the derailment, experts say it’s too early to know whether the disaster will cause fatalities, serious illnesses or widespread environmental damage.

As alarming as the news of the accident in East Palestine is, a look back in history shows that it is not unprecedented. Over the past century, dozens of workplace accidents have killed thousands of Americans.

Here we have collected some of the most serious examples of the past decades. Although the list is not exhaustive, the first section contains a selection of industrial accidents that resulted in several fatalities and injuries. The second section lists incidents that had a significant impact on the environment and, in some cases, involved fatalities. We have separately provided an overview of US railroad accidents.

Selected accidents at work in the USA

1919: Great Molasses Flood, Boston. 22 dead, 150 injured. A storage tank collapsed, sending a 15- to 40-foot wave of molasses through the city’s North End neighborhood, destroying several city blocks and drowning pedestrians.

Heavy black smoke billows after fires raged at a refinery and oil storage tank area in Texas City, Texas on April 17, 1947 following a ship explosion. (AP)

1947: Ship explosion, Texas City, Texas: 400 to 600 dead, 4,000 injured. The SS Grandcamp with highly flammable ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded, setting off a chain of fire and a tidal wave. The explosion was heard 150 miles away.


The site of a May 5, 1988 explosion at a space shuttle fuel plant in Henderson, Nevada. (AP)

1988: PEPCON chemical explosion, Henderson, Nevada: 2 dead, 400 injured. Seven explosions at a plant producing ammonium perchlorate registered up to 3.5 on the Richter scale and left a crater 15 feet wide and 200 feet long.

1990: ARCO explosion, Channelview, Texas: 17 dead, 5 injured. The explosion happened at a petrochemical plant near the Houston Ship Channel that produced a gasoline additive.

Black smoke rises from the roof of the exploded DeBruce Grain elevator near Haysville, Kansas June 12, 1998. (AP

1998: Explosion at a granary in Haysville, Kansas: 7 dead, 10 injured. The grain dust explosion happened in the world’s largest granary, which could store all the wheat needed to make enough bread to feed the entire United States for six weeks.

2009: ConAgra Foods Garner, North Carolina explosion: 4 dead. A natural gas leak caused an explosion at a facility that jolted Slim Jim, blasted a wall into the parking lot, and destroyed part of the roof. Some workers burned to death while others inhaled toxic fumes.

2013: Explosion at a fertilizer plant, West, Texas: 15 dead, hundreds injured. An explosion at a fertilizer storage and distribution facility damaged or destroyed 150 buildings, including a middle school, an apartment building and a nursing home. It left a crater 93 feet wide.

Selected environmental incidents in the United States

The central business district in Donora, Pennsylvania is shrouded in smog on October 30, 1948, with sunlight virtually obliterated by thick, low-lying pollution. (AP)

1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill. An oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, blanketing 1,300 miles of shoreline and killing wildlife. In some places there are still petroleum reserves.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns on April 21, 2010. (AP)

2010: Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The largest oil spill at sea in history, caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that killed 11 and injured 17.

2013: Honolulu molasses spill. Approximately 233,000 gallons of cane molasses flowed into the Port of Honolulu during ship loading. The discharge killed around 25,000 fish in the harbor and damaged coral reefs.

2014: Elk River chemical spill, Charleston, West Virginia. About 10,000 gallons of an industrial chemical flowed into the Elk River upstream from the Kanawha County municipal water intake in Charleston, West Virginia, which served nearly 300,000 people.

2015: Gold King Mine spill near Silverton, Colorado. An Environmental Protection Agency crew accidentally released 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater from the mine, which washed through Durango and eventually into Lake Powell about 300 miles away.

2015: Train derailment in Mt. Carbon, West Virginia. A train loaded with crude oil derailed.

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