After a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and ignited a fire, authorities issued evacuations and implemented a controlled release of the chemicals.

The Feb. 3 derailment set off investigations and raised questions about how serious its impacts will be on local residents and the environment.

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

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

Here, we’ve collected some of the most serious examples in recent decades. Though the list is not comprehensive, the first section includes a selection of industrial incidents that killed and injured multiple people. The second section lists incidents that had a significant impact on the environment and in some cases, also included fatalities. We have separately provided a rundown of U.S. rail accidents.

Selected U.S. industrial accidents

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

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

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

AP 8805050120 | Fact Check: Ohio derailment is just the latest serious industrial accident in the U.S. | The Paradise

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

1988: PEPCON chemical explosion, Henderson, Nevada: 2 dead, 400 injured. Seven explosions at a facility that produced ammonium perchlorate registered as much as 3.5 on the Richter scale and left a crater that was 15 feet wide and 200 feet long.

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

AP 98061201333 | Fact Check: Ohio derailment is just the latest serious industrial accident in the U.S. | The Paradise

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

1998: Grain elevator explosion in Haysville, Kansas: 7 dead, 10 injured. The grain-dust explosion occurred in the world’s largest grain elevator, with space to store all the wheat needed to produce enough bread to feed the entire United States for six weeks.

2009: ConAgra Foods explosion Garner, North Carolina: 4 dead. A natural gas leak produced an explosion at a plant that made Slim Jim jerky, blowing a wall into the parking lot and destroying a portion of the roof. Some workers burned while others inhaled toxic fumes.

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

Selected U.S. environmental incidents

AP 4810300105 | Fact Check: Ohio derailment is just the latest serious industrial accident in the U.S. | The Paradise

The main business district in Donora, Pa., is cloaked in smog on Oct. 30, 1948, with sunlight virtually obliterated by thick, low-hanging pollution. (AP)

1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill. An oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, covering 1,300 miles of coastline and killing wildlife. Pockets of crude oil remain in some locations.

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

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

2013: Honolulu molasses spill. Approximately 233,000 gallons of sugarcane molasses spilled into Honolulu Harbor during ship loading. The discharge killed some 25,000 fish in the harbor and damaged coral reefs.

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

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

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

Source: PolitiFact.

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