Energy resources bring with them great social and economic promise, providing financial growth for communities and energy services for local economies. However, the infrastructure which delivers energy services can break down in an energy accident, sometimes causing considerable damage. Energy fatalities can occur, and with many systems deaths will happen often, even when the systems are working as intended. Historically,

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

has been the most dangerous energy activity and the list of historical

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

mining disasters A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. C ...

is a long one.

Underground mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic v ...

hazards include suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse and gas explosions.

Open cut mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

hazards are principally mine wall failures and vehicle collisions. In the US alone, more than 100,000 coal miners have been killed in accidents over the past century,"Former Miner Explains Culture Of Mining.
NPR: National Public Radio. April 7, 2010. with more than 3,200 dying in 1907 alone.Coal Mining Steeped in History
. ABC News. January 5, 2006. According to

Benjamin K. Sovacool Benjamin K. Sovacool is an American academic who is director of the Institute for Global Sustainability at Boston University as well as Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University. He was formerly Director of the Danish Center for Ene ...

, 279 ''major'' energy accidents occurred from 1907 to 2007 and they caused 182,156 deaths with $41 billion in property damages, with these figures not including deaths from smaller accidents.

. A preliminary assessment of major energy accidents, 1907–2007, ''

Energy Policy Energy policy is the manner in which a given entity (often governmental) has decided to address issues of energy development including energy conversion, distribution and use as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to contr ...

'' 36 (2008), pp. 1802–1820. However, by far the greatest energy fatalities as a result of energy generation by humanity are due to

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different type ...

, primarily generated from the burning of

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...

s and

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bio ...

Particulate matter Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The te ...

(counting outdoor air pollution effects only) is estimated to cause 2.1 to 4.21 million deaths annually.

Fatalities

Hypothetical number of deaths from energy production, OWID

According to

, while responsible for less than 1 percent of the total number of energy accidents,

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

facilities claimed 94 percent of reported immediate fatalities. Results on immediate fatalities are dominated by one disaster in which Typhoon Nina in 1975 washed out the

Shimantan Dam The Banqiao Reservoir Dam () is a dam on the River Ru (), a tributary of the Hong River in Zhumadian City, Henan province, China. The Banqiao dam and Shimantan Reservoir Dam () are among 62 dams in Zhumadian that failed catastrophically in 1975 d ...

(Henan Province, China) and 171,000 people perished. While the other major accident that involved greater than 1000 immediate deaths followed the rupture of the NNPC petroleum pipeline in 1998 and the resulting explosion. The other singular accident described by Sovacool is the ''predicted'' latent death toll of greater than 1000, as a result of the 1986 steam explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine. With approximately 4000 deaths in total, to eventually result in the decades ahead due to the

radio-isotope A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferr ...

pollution released. In the oil and gas industry, the need for improved

safety culture Safety culture is the collection of the beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to risks within an organization, such as a workplace or community. Safety culture is a part of organizational culture, and has been describe ...

and training within companies is evidenced by the finding that workers new to a company are more likely to be involved in fatalities. Coal mining accidents resulted in 5,938 immediate deaths in 2005, and 4746 immediate deaths in 2006 in China alone according to the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the W ...

. Coal mining is the most dangerous occupation in China, the death rate for every 100 tons of coal mined is 100 times that of the death rate in the US and 30 times that achieved in South Africa. Moreover, 600,000 Chinese coal miners, as of 2004, were suffering from

Coalworker's pneumoconiosis Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), also known as black lung disease or black lung, is an occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term exposure to coal dust. It is common in coal miners and others who work with coal. It is similar to b ...

(known as "black lung") a disease of the lungs caused by long-continued inhalation of coal dust. And the figure increases by 70,000 miners every year in China. Historically, coal mining has been a very dangerous activity and the list of historical

is a long one. In the US alone, more than 100,000 coal miners were killed in accidents over the past century, with more than 3,200 dying in 1907 alone. In the decades following this peak, an annual death toll of 1,500 miner fatalities occurred every year in the US until approximately the 1970s. Coal mining fatalities in the US between 1990 and 2012 have continued to decline, with fewer than 100 each year. (See more

Coal mining disasters in the United States A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. C ...

) In the United States, in the 2000s, after three decades of regulation on the

Environmental impact of the coal industry The health and environmental impact of the coal industry includes issues such as land use, waste management, water and air pollution, caused by the coal mining, processing and the use of its products. In addition to atmospheric pollution, coal ...

, including regulations in the 1970s and 1990s from the Clean Air Act, an act created to cut down on pollution related deaths from fossil fuel usage, US

fired power plants were estimated, in the 2000s, to continue to cause between 10,000 and 30,000 latent, or air pollution related deaths per year, due to the emissions of

sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic a ...

nitrogen oxides Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide *Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide * Nitrogen trioxide (), or ...

and directly emitted

particulate matter Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The te ...

that result when coal is burnt. According to the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

in 2012, urban outdoor air pollution, from the burning of

s and

is estimated to cause 3 million deaths worldwide per year and

indoor air pollution Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to sick building syndrome, reduce ...

from biomass and fossil fuel burning is estimated to cause approximately 4.3 million premature deaths. In 2013 a team of researchers estimated the number of premature deaths caused by particulate matter in outdoor air pollution as 2.1 million, occurring annually.

Economic costs

According to Benjamin Sovacool,

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

plants rank first in terms of their economic cost, accounting for 41 percent of all property damage. Oil and hydroelectric follow at around 25 percent each, followed by natural gas at 9 percent and coal at 2 percent. Excluding Chernobyl and the Shimantan Dam, the three other most expensive accidents involved the

Exxon Valdez oil spill The ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. '' Exxon Valdez'', an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company bound for Long Beach, California struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, w ...

(Alaska), The

Prestige oil spill The ''Prestige'' oil spill occurred off the coast of Galicia, Spain in November 2002, caused by the sinking of the 26-year-old, structurally deficient oil tanker , carrying 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. During a storm, it burst a tank on ...

(Spain), and the

Three Mile Island nuclear accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...

(Pennsylvania). However analysis presented in the international Journal, ''Human and Ecological Risk Assessment'' found that coal, oil,

Liquid petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, propylene, butylene, isobutane and n-butane. LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances, cooking ...

and hydro accidents have cost more than nuclear power accidents. Modern-day U.S. regulatory agencies frequently implement regulations on conventional pollution if one life or more is predicted saved per $6 million to $8 million of economic costs incurred.

Selected energy accidents

*April 26, 1942: A coal-

dust explosion A dust explosion is the rapid combustion of fine particles suspended in the air within an enclosed location. Dust explosions can occur where any dispersed powdered combustible material is present in high-enough concentrations in the atmosphere o ...

Benxihu Colliery Benxihu (Honkeiko) Colliery (), located in Benxi, Liaoning, China, was first mined in 1905. Originally an iron and coal mining project under joint Japanese and Chinese control, the mine came under predominantly Japanese control. In the early 1930s, ...

in Japanese occupied China killed 1,549 making it the worst disaster in the

history of coal mining The history of coal mining goes back thousands of years, with early mines documented in ancient China, the Roman Empire and other early historical economies. It became important in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries, when it wa ...

superseding the 1,099 death toll of the

Courrières mine disaster The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst mining accident, caused the death of 1,099 miners in Northern France on 10 March 1906. This disaster was surpassed only by the Benxihu Colliery accident in China on 26 April 1942, which killed 1,5 ...

in 1906 and the second worst recorded energy accident, in terms of lives lost on a single day, after

Banqiao dam The Banqiao Reservoir Dam () is a dam on the River Ru (), a tributary of the Hong River in Zhumadian City, Henan province, China. The Banqiao dam and Shimantan Reservoir Dam () are among 62 dams in Zhumadian that failed catastrophically in 1975 ...

in 1975. Despite the 1943 disaster on the hydroelectric

Möhne Reservoir The Möhne Reservoir, or Moehne Reservoir, is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund, Germany. The lake is formed by the damming of two rivers, Möhne and Heve, and with its four basins stores as much as 1 ...

in the infamous dambusters raid killing 1,579 and thus would technically put it in second place, however as that was a deliberate act of war, it may not be included as an "

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...

" under the strictest use of the term. *December 1952: The

Great Smog of London The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne poll ...

caused by the burning of coal, and to a lesser extent wood, killed 12,000 people within days to months due to inhalation of the

smog Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words '' smoke'' and ''fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then int ...

. * May 1962: The

Centralia, Pennsylvania Centralia is a borough and near- ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Its population has declined from 1,000 in 1980 to five residents in 2020 because a coal mine fire has been bur ...

coal mine fire began, causing the destruction of a highway and forcing the gradual evacuation of the Centralia borough, it is now a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...

. The fire continues to burn in the abandoned borough. *October 1963: A gas explosion at the Indianapolis Coliseum (now known as the Pepsi Coliseum) occurred during the opening night for the Holiday on Ice show, killing 74 and injuring nearly 400. *October 1963: The

Vajont Dam The Vajont Dam (or Vaiont Dam) is a disused dam in northern Italy. It is one of the tallest dams in the world, with a height of . It is in the valley of the Vajont River under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, north of Venice ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

overflew. Filling the reservoir caused geological failure in valley wall, leading to 110 km/h landslide into the lake; water escaped in a wave over the top of dam. Valley had been incorrectly assessed as stable. Several villages were completely wiped out, with an estimated between 1,900 and 2,500 deaths. * March 1967: The

supertanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined ...

was shipwrecked off the west coast of Cornwall, England, causing an environmental disaster. This was the first major

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into t ...

at sea. * August 1975: The

Banqiao Dam The Banqiao Reservoir Dam () is a dam on the River Ru (), a tributary of the Hong River in Zhumadian City, Henan province, China. The Banqiao dam and Shimantan Reservoir Dam () are among 62 dams in Zhumadian that failed catastrophically in 1975 ...

flooded in the Henan Province of China due to heavy rains and poor construction quality of the dam, which was built during

Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstr ...

. 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—making it the worst technical disaster ever. In addition, about 5,960,000 buildings collapsed, and 11 million residents were made homeless. * March 16, 1978: The ''

Amoco Cadiz ''Amoco Cadiz'' was a VLCC (very large crude carrier) owned by Amoco Transport Corp and transporting crude oil for Shell Oil. Operating under the Liberian flag of convenience, she ran aground on 16 March 1978 on Portsall Rocks, from the coa ...

'', a

VLCC An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...

owned by the company Amoco (now merged with BP) sank near the Northwest coasts 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 of its kind (spill from an oil tanker) in history. * January 8, 1979: Betelgeuse incident, a French constructed oil tanker which entered

Bantry Bay Bantry Bay ( ga, Cuan Baoi / Inbhear na mBárc / Bádh Bheanntraighe) is a bay located in County Cork, Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km (1.8-to-2.5 mil ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, exploded and killed 50 people, the disaster also caused extensive harbor damage. * March 28, 1979:

Three Mile Island accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...

. Partial nuclear meltdown. Mechanical failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open

pilot-operated relief valve Like other pressure relief valves (PRV), pilot-operated relief valves (PORV) are used for emergency relief during overpressure events (e.g., a tank gets too hot and the expanding fluid increases the pressure to dangerous levels). PORV are also ca ...

(PORV) in the primary system, allowed large amounts of reactor coolant to escape. Plant operators initially failed to recognize the loss of coolant, resulting in a partial meltdown. The reactor was brought under control but not before radioactive gases were released into the atmosphere. The accident has not been directly linked with a single death. * June 3, 1979: Ixtoc I 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. * November 20, 1980: A Texaco oil rig drilled into a salt mine transforming the

Lake Peigneur Lake Peigneur (locally pronounced ) is a brackish lake in the U.S. state of Louisiana, north of Delcambre and west of New Iberia, near the northernmost tip of Vermilion Bay. With a maximum depth of , it is the deepest lake in Louisiana. Its ...

, a freshwater lake before the accident, into a salt water lake. * February 15, 1982: The mobile offshore oil rig

Ocean Ranger ''Ocean Ranger'' was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil o ...

is struck by a rogue wave off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada and sinks with the loss of all 84 crew. * July 23, 1984:

Romeoville, Illinois Romeoville is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The village is located southwest of Chicago on the Des Plaines River. Per the 2020 census, the population was 39,863. It is located in the southwest suburban area of Chicago near ...

, Union Oil refinery explosion killed 19 people. * November 19, 1984:

San Juanico Disaster The San Juan Ixhuatepec explosions of 1984, also known as the San Juanico disaster, was an industrial disaster caused by a series of explosions at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank farm in San Juan Ixhuatepec, Tlalnepantla de Baz, State of M ...

, an explosion at a liquid petroleum gas tank farm killed hundreds and injured thousands in San Juanico, Mexico. *April 26, 1986:

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two n ...

. At the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in

Prypiat, Ukraine Pripyat ( ; russian: При́пять), also known as Prypiat ( uk, При́пʼять, , ), is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February ...

a test on reactor number four goes out of control, resulting in a power excursion. The ensuing steam explosion, fire and

releases killed approximately 31 to 50 first responders, with most of those exposed to radiation only, dying with acute radiation syndrome within weeks to months after the accident. Future, total death toll predictions, state that there may be a total of between 4,000 and 25,000 cancer deaths in the years to decades ahead due to radiation induced cancers, with the large discrepancy in the predictions created by various authoritative agencies employing different risk models. The 30 kilometer

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation, Belarusian: Хона адчужэння Чарнобыльскай АЭС, ''Zona adčužennia Čarnobyĺskaj AES'', russian: Зона отчуждения Чернобыльской АЭС, ...

, covering portions of

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

and Ukraine surrounding Prypiat, remains contaminated and mostly uninhabited. Prypiat itself was totally evacuated and remains as a partial

, open only for tourists and tours. * May 5, 1988: Norco, Louisiana, Shell Oil refinery explosion after hydrocarbon gas escaped from a corroded pipe in a catalytic cracker and was ignited. Louisiana state police evacuated 2,800 residents from nearby neighborhoods. Seven 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 Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea approximately north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in 1976, initially as an oil-only platform but ...

. An explosion and resulting fire on a North Sea oil production platform kills 167 men. Total insured loss is about US$3.4 billion. To date it is rated as the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms both of lives lost and impact to industry. * March 24, 1989:

. The ''

Exxon Valdez ''Oriental Nicety'', formerly ''Exxon Valdez'', ''Exxon Mediterranean'', ''SeaRiver Mediterranean'', ''S/R Mediterranean'', ''Mediterranean'', and ''Dong Fang Ocean'', was an oil tanker that gained notoriety after running aground in Prince Wi ...

'', an

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined ...

bound for

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, hits Prince William Sound's

Bligh Reef Bligh Reef, sometimes known as Bligh Island Reef, is a reef off the coast of Bligh Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This was the location of the 1989 ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill. After the incident, 33 US Code § 2733 mandated the operatio ...

dumping an estimated minimum 10.8 million US gallons (40.9 million litres, or 250,000 barrels) of

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

into the sea. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused

environmental disaster An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity.Jared M. Diamond, '' Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'', 2005 This point disti ...

s ever to occur in history. 100,000 to as many as 250,000 seabirds died as well as at least 2,800

sea otter The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smal ...

s, approximately 12 river otters, 300

harbor seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...

s, 247 bald eagles, and 22

orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...

s, and billions of salmon and herring eggs were destroyed. Overall reductions in population have been seen in various ocean animals, including stunted growth in pink salmon populations. Sea otters and ducks also showed higher

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...

in following years, partially because they ingested prey from contaminated soil and from ingestion of oil residues on hair due to grooming. The effects of the spill continue to be felt 20 years later. * June 4, 1989: The

Ufa train disaster The Ufa train disaster was a railway accident that occurred on 4 June 1989, in Iglinsky District, Bashkir ASSR, Soviet Union, when an explosion killed 575 people and injured 800 more. It is the deadliest rail disaster during peacetime in Soviet ...

was a railway accident that occurred on 4 June 1989, in Iglinsky District, Bashkir ASSR, Soviet Union, when an explosion killed 575 people and injured 800 more. The explosion was caused by a faulty pipeline transporting natural gas. * April 22, 1992:

1992 Guadalajara explosions A series of ten explosions took place on April 22, 1992, in the downtown district of Analco Colonia Atlas in Guadalajara city, Jalisco state, Mexico. Numerous gasoline explosions in the sewer system and fires over four hours destroyed of str ...

in the downtown district of Analco

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Numerous

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organi ...

explosions in the sewer system over four hours destroyed of streets. According to the

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gove ...

accounting firm, 252 people were killed, nearly 500 injured and 15,000 were left homeless. The estimated monetary damage ranges between $300 million to $1 billion. * 1992: A

Gas explosion A gas explosion is an explosion resulting from mixing a gas, typically from a gas leak, with air in the presence of an ignition source. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as n ...

in a Turkish coal mine kills 263 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak. * September 25, 1998: The Esso Longford gas explosion in Australia kills 2 and injures 8. * June 10, 1999: The

Olympic Pipeline Explosion On June 10, 1999, the Olympic pipeline operated by Olympic Pipe Line Company, carrying gasoline at the time, exploded in Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham, Washington. The disaster started at 3:25 PM PDT (22:25 UTC) when a mostly underground gaso ...

in Bellingham, Washington, USA kills three when a pipeline carrying gasoline ruptures, spilling 277,000 gallons into a creek, which then ignited. * December 22, 1999: A gas explosion in Larkhall in Lanarkshire, south east of Glasgow

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, kills a family of 4. * November 5, 2000: The road Ibadan tanker truck explosion kills 100–200 when the petrol/gasoline tanker collides with a traffic jam and bursts into flames. * June 2002: A coal mine explosion kills 111 to 124 in Heilongjiang province, China. Coal mining fatalities in China are under-reported. * June 20, 2003: A

gas explosion A gas explosion is an explosion resulting from mixing a gas, typically from a gas leak, with air in the presence of an ignition source. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as n ...

at a Koranic school dormitory in Kayseri,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, kills 8 and injuries 2. *October 16, 2003 " Derrybrien wind farm",

's largest

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

construction project at the time, on top of a hill, with an underlying layer of

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

. Resulted in the triggering of a peat avalanche, and thereby the pollution of a nearby lake, contaminating the water supply of a town and the death of an estimated 50,000 fish, with peat related carbon dioxide releases. * February 18, 2004 The

Nishapur train disaster The Neishapur train disaster was a large explosion in the village of Khayyam near Nishapur in Iran, on 18 February 2004. Nearly 300 people were killed and the entire village was destroyed when runaway train wagons crashed into the community in ...

occurred in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, caused by fossil fuel cargo containers catching fire, then igniting other combustibles, which finally exploded, it resulted in ~300 killed and the destruction of the entire village of Khayyam by blast and fire. * March 16, 2004: The Arkhangelsk explosion of 2004 was a gas explosion that killed 58 in an apartment building in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk. * May 11, 2004: The

Stockline Plastics factory explosion On 11 May 2004, the ICL Plastics factory (commonly referred to as Stockline Plastics factory), in the Woodside district of Maryhill, Glasgow in western Scotland, exploded. Nine people were killed, including two company directors, and 33 injured, ...

was a LPG gas explosion that killed 9 & injured 33, it also destroyed the 4 story factory. * March 23, 2005:

Texas City Refinery explosion The Texas City Refinery explosion occurred on March 23, 2005, when a vapor cloud of natural gas and petroleum ignited and violently exploded at the isomerization (ISOM) process unit at the BP Texas City refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 ...

. An explosion occurred at a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas. It is the third largest refinery in the United States and one of the largest in the world, processing 433,000 barrels of crude oil per day and accounting for 3% of that nation's gasoline supply. Over 100 were injured, and 15 were confirmed dead, including employees of Jacobs Engineering and the Fluor Corporation as well as BP. BP has since accepted that its employees contributed to the accident. Several level indicators failed, leading to overfilling of a knock out drum, and light hydrocarbons concentrated at ground level throughout the area. A nearby running diesel truck set off the explosion. * July 11, 2005: A gas explosion kills 19 and injuries 17 people at a shopping centre in the northern Russian town of Ukhta. * December 11, 2005: Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire. A series of explosions at the Buncefield oil storage depot, described as the largest peacetime explosion in Europe, devastated the terminal and many surrounding properties. There were no fatalities. Total damages have been forecast as £750 million. *January 2, 2006:The

Sago mine disaster The Sago Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion on January 2, 2006, at the Sago Mine in Sago, West Virginia, United States, near the Upshur County seat of Buckhannon. The blast and collapse trapped 13 miners for nearly two days; only one su ...

caused by a coal mine explosion kills 12 in the US, the worst such accident since 2001 in the US. * March 19, 2007 No less than 75 miners died with at least 43 missing after a methane gas explosion at the Ulyanovskaya coal mine in the Kemerovo region of Siberia. * July 18, 2007 The

2007 New York City steam explosion On July 18, 2007, an explosion in Manhattan, New York City, sent a geyser of hot steam up from beneath a busy intersection, with a 40-story-high shower of mud and flying debris raining down on the crowded streets of Midtown Manhattan. It was ...

occurred, resulting in ~50 injuries, 2 critical, and ~30 million dollars of lost revenue for the cities businesses. * June 29, 2009

Viareggio train derailment The Viareggio derailment was the derailment of a freight train and subsequent fire which occurred on 29 June 2009 in a railway station in Viareggio, Lucca, a city in Central Italy's Tuscany region. Thirty-two people were killed and a furthe ...

, a train carrying Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG) derailed with the LPG containers exploding. 32 people died, 26 people were injured, 100 people left homeless. * '17 August 2009: The

2009 Sayano–Shushenskaya power station accident On 17 August 2009, a turbine at the hydroelectric power station of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam near Sayanogorsk in Russia failed catastrophically, flooding the turbine hall and killing 75 people. A section of the roof of the turbine hall colla ...

at the Russian hydroelectric station occurred when turbine 2 broke free and shot-up violently. The turbine hall then flooded as a result of the hole where the turbine previously seated and the ceiling of the hall collapsed with 75 people killed along with a 1–2 billion dollar cleanup of the site and 400 tons of trout killed due to transformer oil being release. * 29 October 2009: Jaipur (Indian Oil) Fire killed 12 people and injuring 300, with 500,000 people evacuated, the first explosion shattered window glass 3 km away. * November 23, 2009: 2009 Heilongjiang mine explosion A gas explosion killed 108 and hospitalized another 29 people in a coal mine in Heilongjiang province China. * 2010: A gas explosion at a Turkish coal mine kills 30. * February 7, 2010: 2010 Connecticut power plant explosion. A large explosion occurred at a Kleen Energy Systems 620-

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

, Siemens combined cycle gas- and oil- fired power plant in Middletown, Connecticut,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Preliminary reports attributed the cause of the explosion to a test of the plant's energy systems. The plant was still under construction and scheduled to start supplying energy in June 2010. The number of injuries was eventually established to be 27. Five people died in the explosion. * April 20, 2010:

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considere ...

in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

. 11 oil platform workers died in a natural gas blow out explosion and fire, following the sinking of the oil platform the accident resulted in a massive

in the

, considered the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. According to the Committee on the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, poor safety culture was largely to blame for the accident. * September 9, 2010: The

2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion The San Bruno pipeline explosion occurred at 6:11 pm PDT on September 9, 2010, in San Bruno, California, when a diameter steel natural gas pipeline owned by Pacific Gas & Electric exploded into flames in the Crestmoor residential neighbor ...

occurred in a suburb of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

killing 8 and produced a ball of fire 1,000 foot high due to the rupture of the natural gas pipeline. * November 3, 2010: A gas explosion destroyed four houses and injured 15 people, in Merlin Road, Salford, Greater Manchester,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. * November 15, 2010: A

in the Grand Riviera Princess hotel in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen kills 7 and injuries 18. * December 19, 2010:

2010 Puebla oil pipeline explosion The 2010 Puebla oil pipeline explosion was a large oil pipeline explosion that occurred at 5:50 am CST on December 19, 2010, in the city of San Martín Texmelucan de Labastida, Puebla, Mexico. The pipeline, running from Tabasco to Hidalgo, was ...

. A large oil pipeline explosion that occurred at 5:50 am CST in the city of San Martín Texmelucan de Labastida, Puebla,

. The pipeline, running from

Tabasco Tabasco (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco), is one of the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It is located in ...

Hidalgo Hidalgo may refer to: People * Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility * Hidalgo (surname) Places Mexico * Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico * Hidalgo, Coahuila, a town in the north Mexican state of Coahuila * Hidalgo, Nuevo Le� ...

, was owned by the Pemex petroleum company, and exploded after thieves from the

Los Zetas Los Zetas (, Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate, regarded as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent "shock and awe" tactics such as beheadings, torture, and indiscr ...

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when th ...

attempted to siphon off the oil. The

and resulting

oil fire Oil well fires are oil or gas wells that have caught on fire and burn. They can be the result of accidents, arson, or natural events, such as lightning. They can exist on a small scale, such as an oil field spill catching fire, or on a huge scal ...

killed 29 people, including thirteen children, and injured 52. Some of the flames in the fire became ten metres high, and the smoke towered over the city. * March 2011: Cosmo Oil Refinery Fire: The Cosmo Oil Company's refinery in Japan's Ichihara,

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to t ...

, caught fire during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. As it raged, several pressurized liquified propane gas storage tanks exploded into massive fireballs, the largest over Japan since

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

in World War II. * March 2011:

Fukushima I nuclear accidents The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 ...

in Japan. Regarded as the second largest

nuclear disaster A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility. Examples include lethal effects to individuals, lar ...

in history, after the

, there have been no direct deaths attributed to radiation at or around the Fukushima power station but a few of the plant's workers were injured or killed by the disaster conditions resulting from the earthquake and tsunami that struck the power plant which precipitated the accident. The estimated future cancer burden is a total of 180 cases in the years and decades ahead. As of 2013, 160,000 evacuees are still living in temporary housing. The difficult cleanup job will take 40 or more years, and cost tens of billions of dollars. * March 21, 2011 A coal mine explosion in Sorange Pakistan kills 45. * April 2011 A road fuel tanker overturns when stopping at a checkpoint in central Nigeria, sparking a fire in which some 50 people were killed. * July 12, 2012 Okobie road tanker explosion, a road tanker carrying

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic c ...

/gasoline crashes then explodes killing 121 spectators and injuring at least 75 more. * October 29, 2012:

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

caused a ConEdison power plant to explode, causing a blackout in most of Midtown Manhattan. The blue light emitted from the arc made places as far as Brooklyn glow. No person was killed or injured. * February 11, 2013 An underground methane gas explosion killed 18 miners at the Vorkutinskaya coal pit in northern Russia. * April 5, 2013 A gas well blowout kills 2 and injuries 2 others in Texas USA. * April 28, 2013: A gas explosion demolishes a five-story residential building in Reims France, killing no less than 3 people and injuring 14. * July 6, 2013:

Lac-Mégantic rail disaster The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, on July 6, 2013, at approximately 01:15 EDT, when an unattended 73-car Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) freight train carrying Bakken Formation c ...

63 cars of a 72-car train carrying crude oil derailed, causing fire and explosions in downtown Lac-Mégantic,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada. 47 people were killed and 30 buildings were destroyed. * 13 May 2014 The Soma coal mine disaster was an explosion at a coal mine in

that killed ~301 and trapped a further 600 underground. * 31 July 2014 The

2014 Kaohsiung gas explosions On 31 July 2014, a series of gas explosions occurred in the Cianjhen and Lingya districts of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night. Thirty-two people were killed and 321 people were injured. Event The e ...

occurring in a

Kaohsiung City Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohs ...

city street in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, it killed 30 and injured 309 while destroying 1.5 km of road and damaging 1,500 business stores.

References

{{Reflist

Fatalities

Economic costs

Selected energy accidents

See also

Specific events

References