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 resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

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 Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

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. ...

is a long one.

Underground mining Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a la ...

hazards include suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse and

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

explosions. Open cut 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 and British 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 Ce ...

, 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 policies are the government's strategies and decisions regarding the Energy production, production, Energy distribution, distribution, and World energy supply and consumption, consumption of energy within a specific jurisdiction. Energy ...

'' 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 presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

, primarily generated from the burning of

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...

s and

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

Particulate matter Particulate matter (PM) or particulates are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. An ''aerosol'' is a mixture of particulates and air, as opposed to the particulate matter alone, though it is sometimes defin ...

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

Fatalities

According to

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

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

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 (Henan Province, China) and 171,000 people perished. 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 A steam explosion is an explosion caused by violent boiling or flashing of water or ice into steam, occurring when water or ice is either superheated, rapidly heated by fine hot debris produced within it, or heated by the interaction of molten ...

at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine. With approximately 4000 deaths in total, to eventually result in the decades ahead due to the radio-isotope pollution released. In the oil and gas industry, the need for improved safety culture 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 (WWF) is a Swiss-based 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 ...

. 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 Black lung disease (BLD), also known as coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or simply black lung, is an occupational disease, occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term inhalation and deposition of coal dust in the lungs and the consequent ...

(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 mining (hard rock), underground coal mining, although accidents al ...

) 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 pollution, water and air pollution, caused by the coal mining, processing and the use of its products. In addition to atmospher ...

, 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 colorless gas with a pungent smell that is responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is r ...

nitrogen oxides In atmospheric chemistry, is shorthand for nitric oxide () and nitrogen dioxide (), the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution. These gases contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain, as well as affecting tr ...

and directly emitted

particulate matter Particulate matter (PM) or particulates are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. An ''aerosol'' is a mixture of particulates and air, as opposed to the particulate matter alone, though it is sometimes defin ...

that result when coal is burnt. According to the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

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 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 by ...

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 was a major environmental disaster that occurred in Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. The spill occurred when ''Exxon Valdez'', an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Be ...

(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 1 ...

(Spain), and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident (Pennsylvania). However analysis presented in the international Journal, ''Human and Ecological Risk Assessment'' found that coal, oil, Liquid petroleum gas 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 ...

at Benxihu Colliery 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 w ...

superseding the 1,099 death toll of the Courrières mine disaster in 1906 and the second worst recorded energy accident, in terms of lives lost on a single day, after Banqiao dam in 1975. Despite the 1943 disaster on the hydroelectric Möhne Reservoir 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 deliberately caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that the event may have been caused by Risk assessment, unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Many researchers, insurers ...

" 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 ...

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 odour. The word was then inte ...

. * May 1962: The

Centralia, Pennsylvania Centralia ( ) is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough and near-ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Its population declined from 1,000 in 1980 to five residents in 2020 because a Cent ...

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 A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

. 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 in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

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 cr ...

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 th ...

at sea. * August 1975: The Banqiao Dam 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 was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...

. 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 an oil tanker owned by Amoco, Amoco Transport Corp and transporting crude oil for Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Oil. Operating under the Liberian flag, she ran aground on 16 March 1978 on Portsall, Portsall Rocks, from the coast ...

'', a VLCC 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 The Whiddy Island disaster, also known as the ''Betelgeuse'' incident or ''Betelgeuse'' disaster, occurred on 8 January 1979, around 1:00 am, when the oil tanker ''Betelgeuse'' exploded in Bantry Bay, at the offshore jetty for the oil term ...

, a French constructed oil tanker which entered

Bantry Bay Bantry Bay () 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 miles) wide at the head and wide at the entrance. Geograp ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, 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 nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor (TMI-2) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, located on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Londonderry T ...

. Partial nuclear meltdown. Mechanical failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (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

es were released into the atmosphere. The accident has not been directly linked with a single death. * June 3, 1979:

Ixtoc I oil spill Ixtoc 1 was an exploratory oil well being drilled by the semi-submersible drilling rig ''Sedco 135'' in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, about northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in waters deep. On 3 June 1979, the well suffe ...

. 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, 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, Union Oil refinery explosion killed 19 people. * November 19, 1984: San Juanico Disaster, an explosion at a liquid petroleum gas tank farm killed hundreds and injured thousands in San Juanico, Mexico. * April 26, 1986:

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

. At the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in

Prypiat, Ukraine Pripyat, also known as Prypiat, is an abandoned industrial city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 1970 as the ninth ''atomgrad'' ('atom city', a t ...

a test on reactor number four goes out of control, resulting in a power excursion. The ensuing steam explosion, fire and radio-isotope releases killed approximately 31 to 50 first responders, with most of those exposed to radiation only, dying with

acute radiation syndrome Acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, is a collection of health effects that are caused by being exposed to high amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. Symptoms can start wit ...

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, also called the 30-Kilometre Zone or simply The Zone, was established shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. Initially, Soviet authorities declar ...

, covering portions of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

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 about north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in December 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'', an

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

bound for

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, hits

Prince William Sound Prince William Sound ( Sugpiaq: ''Suungaaciq'') is a sound off the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the ...

's Bligh Reef 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 chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...

into the sea. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters 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 Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of ...

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 sea ...

s, 247

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

s, and 22

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

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 d ...

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 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 in the downtown district of Analco

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Numerous

gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...

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 a 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 gover ...

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 the Combustion, ignition of a mixture of air and flammable gas, typically from a gas leak. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as natural gas, methane, propan ...

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 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. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, 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 the Combustion, ignition of a mixture of air and flammable gas, typically from a gas leak. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as natural gas, methane, propan ...

at a Koranic school dormitory in Kayseri,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

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

's largest

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

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 muske ...

. 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 occurred in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, 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 On March 16, 2004, an explosion destroyed a corner section of a nine-storey Soviet Union, Soviet-era apartment building in Arkhangelsk, Russia. It happened at 3:03 a.m. local time (UTC +3). The explosion occurred in 120 Avenue of the So ...

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 was a LPG gas explosion that killed 9 & injured 33, it also destroyed the 4 story factory. * March 23, 2005: Texas City refinery explosion. An explosion occurred at a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas. At the time, it was the fourth largest refinery in the United States and one of the largest in the world, processing 437,000 barrels of crude oil per day and accounting for 2.5% of that nation's gasoline supply. The injured were 180, and 15 people 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 blowdown 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 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 occurred, resulting in ~50 injuries, 2 critical, and ~30 million dollars of lost revenue for the cities businesses. * June 29, 2009 Viareggio train derailment, a train carrying

Liquefied Petroleum Gas Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, Butane, ''n''-butane and isobutane. It can also contain some ...

(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 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 The Jaipur oil depot fire broke out on 29 October 2009 at 7:30 PM (IST) at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) oil depot's giant tank holding of petrol, in Sitapura Industrial Area on the outskirts of Jaipur, Rajasthan, killing 12 people and injur ...

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 (physics), 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 quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

combined cycle A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...

gas- and oil- fired power plant in

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles (25.749504 km) south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the L ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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 was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...

in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. 11

oil platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...

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 occurred in a suburb of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. * 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 Central Time Zone (North America), CST on December 19, 2010, in the city of San Martín Texmelucan de Labastida, Puebla, Mexico. The pipeline, runni ...

. A large

oil pipeline A pipeline is a system of pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries around the world. The Un ...

explosion that occurred at 5:50 am CST in the city of San Martín Texmelucan de Labastida,

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

. The pipeline, running from

Tabasco Tabasco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tabasco, 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It i ...

to Hidalgo, was owned by the

Pemex Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexico, Mexican State ownership, state-owned Petroleum industry, petroleum corporation managed and operated by the government of Mexico, ...

petroleum company, and exploded after thieves from the

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

drug cartel A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of independent drug lords who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the illegal drug trade. Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the i ...

attempted to siphon off the oil. The

and resulting oil fire 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 Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

's Ichihara,

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, 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 ...

, 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 , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

in World War II. * March 2011: Fukushima I nuclear accidents in

. Regarded as the second largest nuclear disaster 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 (North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formul ...

/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 large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

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

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

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 Qianzhen District, Cianjhen and Lingya District, Lingya districts of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night. Thirty-two people were killed and 321 people ...

occurring in a

Kaohsiung City Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of ...

city street in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, 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