An archive of 510 recorded disasters — natural catastrophes, industrial accidents, transport disasters, fires, crowd crushes and epidemics. Every event has its own page. Our own hand-written records come first; the rest are imported from Wikidata and Wikipedia.
The Blantyre mining disaster, which happened on the morning of 22 October 1877, in Blantyre, Scotland, was Scotland's worst ever mining accident. Pits No. 2 and No. 3 of William Dixon's Blantyre Colliery were the site of an explosion which
Read the full record →The Hartley Colliery disaster (also known as the Hartley Pit disaster or Hester Pit disaster) was a coal mining accident in Northumberland, England, that occurred on 16 January 1862 and resulted in the deaths of 204 men and children. The be
Read the full record →The Nyasaland famine of 1949 was a famine that occurred in the Shire Highlands in the Southern Province of Nyasaland (now Malawi) and also in a part of the Central Province in 1949. Its effects extended into the early part of 1950. The imme
Read the full record →The West Ice accidents (Ulykkene i Vestisen) occurred around 5 April 1952 when the five Norwegian seal hunting vessels Ringsel, Brattind and Vårglim from Troms and Buskøy and Pels from Sunnmøre with a total crew of 78 men vanished in the m
Read the full record →The Mather Mine disaster refers to the events surrounding an explosion that occurred in the Mather Mine on May 19, 1928, at 4:07 PM in Mather, Pennsylvania. A report released by the United States Bureau of Mines states that a total of 195 m
Read the full record →On 30 December 2004, a fire broke out in the crowded República Cromañón nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 194 people and leaving at least 1,492 injured. The direct cause was the indoor pyrotechnics igniting the ceiling.
Read the full record →On February 18, 2003, an arsonist set fire to a Daegu Metro subway train as it arrived at Jungangno station in central Daegu, South Korea. The resulting blaze, which spread when a second train stopped at the same station, killed 192 people
Read the full record →The Lundhill Colliery explosion was a coal mining accident which took place on 19 February 1857 in Wombwell, Yorkshire, UK in which 189 men and boys aged between 10 and 59 died. It is one of the biggest industrial disasters in the country's
Read the full record →The Kinross mine disaster (12 April 1985) resulted in the deaths of 177 miners and the injury of 235 others, making it one of the largest mining incidents in South Africa. The disaster occurred at the Kinross gold mine when welding set alig
Read the full record →The Castle Gate mine disaster occurred on March 8, 1924, in a coal mine near the town of Castle Gate, Utah (now dismantled), located approximately 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Salt Lake City. All of the 171 men working in the mine were
Read the full record →The Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine disaster of June 8, 1917, occurred as a result of a fire in a copper mine, and was the most deadly event in underground hard rock mining in United States history. Most men died of suffocation underground
Read the full record →On 2 July 2020, a major landslide at the Wai Khar jade mining site in the Hpakant area of Kachin State, Myanmar, killed between 175 and 200 miners in the country's deadliest-ever mining incident. At 06:30 local time (MMT) heavy rains trigge
Read the full record →The 1998 Sarno and Quindici landslides (Italian: Alluvione di Sarno e Quindici del 1998), also known as the 1998 Sarno and Quindici floods, were a series of large and deadly landslides caused by torrential rain and flooding that struck the
Read the full record →On 29 October 2022, at approximately 22:20, a crowd surge occurred during Halloween festivities in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea, resulting in 159 deaths and 196 injuries. The total number of fatalities includes two individ
Read the full record →On 2 August 2014, due to heavy rainfall, a landslide occurred at the Sunkoshi river, killing 156 people and blocking the river to form an artificial lake in Sindhupalchok District, Nepal. Araniko Highway, the main (and only) artery of goods
Read the full record →On 12 June 2017, heavy monsoon rain triggered a series of landslides and floods in Rangamati, Chittagong and Bandarban - three hilly districts of Bangladesh - and killed at least 152 people. The weather also caused power cuts and telecommun
Read the full record →The Minnie Pit disaster was a coal mining accident that took place on 12 January 1918 in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys died. The disaster, which was caused by an explosion due to firedamp, is the worst ever recorded i
Read the full record →On 15 February 2022, intense rainfall in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil caused mudslides and flooding that destroyed parts of the city. At least 231 people died in the disaster.
Read the full record →The Nanaimo mine explosion occurred on May 3, 1887, in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, killing 150 miners. Only seven miners survived and the mine burned for one full day. The explosion started deep underground in the Number One Coal Mi
Read the full record →The 2024 South American wildfires refer to a mega colossal series of wildfires that significantly impacted several neighboring South American countries, including Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Based on Global Wildfire
Read the full record →The Kurenivka mudslide occurred on 13 March 1961 in Kyiv, then a city in the Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. It took place near the historic Babi Yar ravine, which had been the site of the mass murder of more than 100,000 Jews and other civili
Read the full record →The Vega de Tera disaster, (also known as the Ribadelago disaster [Catástrofe de Ribadelago]) was a flood that occurred on the early morning of 9 January 1959 in the Province of Zamora, Spain. The flood was caused by the failure of a dam, r
Read the full record →The Aberfan disaster (Welsh: Trychineb Aberfan) was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a n
Read the full record →During the night of 20 February 1979, the Sinila volcano of the Dieng Volcanic Complex erupted on the Indonesian island of Java in Central Java province. Over 175 people died, mainly due to gas poisoning in villages on the plateau near the
Read the full record →On 30 October 2022, a pedestrian suspension bridge over the Machchhu River in the city of Morbi in Gujarat, India, collapsed, causing the deaths of at least 141 people and injuries to more than 180 others. The 19th-century bridge had reopen
Read the full record →On 1 December 2024, a stampede occurred at the Stade du 3 Avril, a football stadium in the Guinean city of Nzérékoré, resulting in at least 56 deaths. Civil society groups said at least 140 people died, 11 missing, most of them children.
Read the full record →On 1 October 2022, a fatal crowd crush occurred following an association football match at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang Regency, East Java, Indonesia. Following a loss by home side Arema to their rivals Persebaya Surabaya, around 3,000 Arem
Read the full record →The Banner mine disaster of April 8, 1911 near Littleton, Alabama was a coal mine explosion that killed 128 people. The event ranks among the 15 deadliest coal mine disasters in U.S. history. The exact cause of the early-morning blast is u
Read the full record →The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred in Logan County, West Virginia, on February 26, 1972, when a coal slurry impoundment dam burst, causing significant loss of life and property damage. The impoundment dam, managed by Pitts
Read the full record →In February 2024, a series of wildfires broke out in Chile, affecting multiple regions including Valparaíso, O'Higgins, Maule, Biobío, and Los Lagos. The most severe incidents occurred in the Valparaíso Region as of 5 February 2024. The Chi
Read the full record →A violent volcanic eruption occurred in the early hours of 10 June 1886 at Mount Tarawera, near Rotorua on New Zealand's North Island. The eruption reached an estimated volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 5 and killed an estimated 120 peopl
Read the full record →The Flour Massacre (Arabic: مجزرة الطحين, romanized: majzarat aṭ-ṭaḥīn) occurred in the Gaza Strip on 29 February 2024, when at least 118 Palestinians were killed and 760 injured after Israeli forces opened fire while the Palestinians were
Read the full record →The rockslide of Elm (German: Der Bergsturz von Elm) was a mining disaster in Elm, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland which killed 115 people and destroyed 83 buildings on 11 September 1881. The catastrophe was partially caused by the mining of
Read the full record →On July 17, 1981, two overhead walkways in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, collapsed, killing 114 people and injuring 216. Loaded with partygoers, the concrete and glass platforms crashed onto a tea dance in the lobby. The
Read the full record →On 21 November 2015, a major landslide in Hpakant, Kachin State, northern Myanmar killed at least 116 people near a jade mine, with around 100 more missing.
Read the full record →The Nebukawa Station accident (Japanese: 根府川駅列車転落事故) is a railway accident that occurred in Japan on September 1, 1923.
Read the full record →A crawler crane collapsed over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, around 5:10 p.m. on 11 September 2015, killing 111 people and injuring 394 others. The city was preparing for the Hajj pilgrimage. The collapse has been cited as the
Read the full record →The 2023 Hawaii wildfires were a series of wildfires that broke out in early August 2023 in the U.S. state of Hawaii, predominantly on the island of Maui. The wind-driven fires prompted evacuations and caused widespread damage, killing at l
Read the full record →The Ulyanovskaya Mine disaster was caused by a methane explosion that occurred on March 19, 2007, in the Ulyanovskaya longwall coal mine in the Kemerovo Oblast. At least 108 people were reported to have been killed by the blast, which occur
Read the full record →The Avondale Mine disaster was a massive fire at the Avondale Colliery near Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania, on September 6, 1869. It caused the death of 110 workers. It started when the wooden lining of the mine shaft caught fire and ignit
Read the full record →On June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:22 a.m. EDT, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, United States, partially collapsed, causing the deaths of 98 people. Four people were resc
Read the full record →The Fatal Vespers was a 1623 structural collapse at Hunsdon House in Blackfriars, London, England, the official residence of the French ambassador. There were 95 fatalities when the floor of an upper room collapsed under the weight of three
Read the full record →On 28 March 2025, a building under construction which was intended for the State Audit Office collapsed in Bangkok, Thailand, following a devastating earthquake that occurred in Myanmar. It resulted in 96 deaths and 9 injuries. Already topp
Read the full record →On 16 March 2019, a flash flood struck Jayapura Regency in the province of Papua, Indonesia due to torrential rain, with a separate landslide occurring in the city of Jayapura several hours later. At least 113 people were killed in the two
Read the full record →On 19 April 2023, a crowd crush occurred in the Old City of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, after people gathered in front of a school to receive the traditional alms of Zakat al-Fitr before the end of Ramadan. Shots fired by the Houthi militi
Read the full record →The 1971 Certej dam failure was a flood due to the failure of a tailings dam at the Certej mine which led to the death of 89 people. It occurred on 30 October 1971 in Certeju de Sus commune, Hunedoara County, Romania.
Read the full record →The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) was a wildfire in the Inland Northwest region of the United States which burned three million acres (4,700 sq mi; 12,100 km2) in N
Read the full record →The 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California's Butte County was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. The blaze began on the morning of November 8, 2018 when hardware on a poorly maintained Pacific Gas and Electric
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