World Accidents ec

Structural fires

1. 
   2000+ – Church of the Company Fire (Santiago, Chile, December 8, 1863) The Church of the Company Fire (December 8, 1863) is the largest fire to have ever affected the city of Santiago, Chile. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people died, and it is considered one of the worst fire disasters in history. The Church of the Company of Jesus, (Spanish: Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús) was a Jesuit church located in downtown Santiago, closely associated with the Marian cult. That day was the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the most popular festivities of the religious calendar, and the temple was adorned with a profusion of gas lights and wall coverings. In the main altar, a large statue of the virgin Mary stood over a half-moon that in itself was a huge candelabra. That night, the fire started a few minutes before 7 PM^[1], when a gas lamp at the top of the main altar ignited some of the veils that adorned the walls. Somebody tried to put it out by smothering it with another cloth, but managed to only make the fire jump over to the rest of the veils and from there on to the wood roof. The mostly women attendees panicked and tried to escape but the side doors had been closed in order to leave space to accommodate more people (they only could be opened inwards), leaving the main entrance as the only exit. Upon being notified of the tragedy, U.S. Envoy to Chile Thomas H. Nelson rushed to the scene and assisted in rescue operations. Several days after the fire, Nelson was recognized as a "true hero of Chile." The big hoop skirts worn at the time made escape very difficult if not impossible, causing the people at the front to fall down and to be trampled by the ones behind. Very soon the main entrance was blocked by a human wall of bodies, impeding both the exit of the ones trapped inside, and entrance to the rescuers. The main tower of the church was built of wood (while the rest of the church was solid masonry) and finally collapsed inwards around 10 PM^[1], putting an end to the few remaining survivors. Aftermath Between 2,000 and 3,000 people perished in the fire, in a city that at the time had about 100,000 inhabitants. Entire families were wiped out. The clean-up of the bodies took about ten days, and since most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, they were placed in a mass grave at the Cementerio General de Santiago. The remaining walls of the church were torn down, and a garden was planted in the place, with a statue placed at the site where the main altar used to be. The garden and the statue still exist. At present the statue is part of the old Congressional gardens. A copy of the statue is located at the main entrance of the Cementerio General de Santiago. The Church bells were sold for scrap and recovered and made their way to Oystermouth, Swansea, Wales, where they are still used today for calling people to worship. A consultation is being considered for their return to Santiago.^[2] The tragedy, and the fact that one of the contributing factors was the lack of an organized fire-brigade, motivated José Luis Claro y Cruz, to organize the first Volunteer Firemen's Corps in Santiago, on December 20 of the same year. Fire brigades in Chile, even today, are still made up only of unpaid volunteers.
   
2. 
   2000 – Theater fire (Kamli^{[disambiguation needed]}, China, 1893)
   
3. 
   1670 – Theater fire (Canton, China, May 25, 1845)
   
4. 
   900 – Theater fire (Shanghai, China, June 1871)
   
5. 
   800 – Lehman Theater fire (St. Petersburg, Russia, 1836)
   
6. 
   694 – Cinema fire (Xinjiang, China, 1977)
   
7. 
   658 – Antoung Movie Theater fire (China, February 13, 1937)
   
8. 
   650 – Korean National Theater fire (Kyoeng, Korea, April 1888)
   
9. 
   602 – Iroquois Theater Fire (Chicago, Illinois, December 30, 1903)
   
10. 
    600 – Theater fire (Tientsin, China, May 1872)
    
11. 
    530 – Kanungu church fire (Kanungu, Uganda, March 17, 2000)
    
12. 
    396 – Paraguay supermarket fire (Asunción, Paraguay, August 1, 2004)
    
13. 
    309 – Dongdu Commercial shopping center fire (Luoyang, China, December 25, 2000)
    
14. 
    198 – Daegu Subway Fire (Daegu, South Korea, 2003)
    
15. 
    194 – República Cromagnon nightclub fire (Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 30, 2004)
    
16. 
    153 – Perm Lame Horse club fire, (Perm, Russia, December 4, 2009)
    
17. 
    100 – The Station nightclub fire, (West Warwick, Rhode Island, 2003)
    
18. 
    59 (to 61) – Santika 2009 Bangkok nightclub fire (Bangkok, Thailand, January 1, 2009)
    
19. 
    44 – Myojo 56 building fire, (Tokyo, Japan, September 1, 2001)
    
20. 
    24 – 2009 Nakumatt supermarket fire, Nairobi, Kenya, January 2009
    
21. 
    21 – Hostel for homeless fire, Kamień Pomorski, Poland, April 13, 2009
    
22. 
    19 – Calderón Guardia Hospital fire, San José, Costa Rica, July 12, 2005
    

1. 
   ~1,700 - Queen of the Sea rail disaster (Sri Lanka, 2004) Queen of the Sea rail disaster was a rail disaster with the highest count of deaths in history. It occurred when a crowded passenger train was destroyed on a coastal railway in Sri Lanka by the tsunami which followed the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, and resulted in the greatest loss of life in railroad history. More than 1,700 people died, much higher than the previous rail disaster with most fatalities, the Bihar train disaster in India in 1981.
   
2. 
   800–1000 – Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment (France, 1917)
   
3. 
   600–1000 – Ciurea rail disaster (Romania, 1917)
   
4. 
   500-800 – Bihar train disaster (Bihar, India, 1981)
   
5. 
   600+ – Guadalajara train disaster (Mexico, 1915)
   
6. 
   575 – Ufa train disaster (Russia, 1989)
   
7. 
   521-600+ – Balvano train disaster (Italy, 1944)
   
8. 
   200-500+ – Torre del Bierzo rail disaster (Spain, 1944)
   
9. 
   428 – Awash rail disaster (Awash, Afar, Ethiopia, 1985)
   
10. 
    383 – Al Ayatt train disaster (Egypt, 2002)
    
11. 
    320 – Nishapur train disaster (Iran, 2004)
    
12. 
    281 – Igandu train disaster (Tanzania, 2002)
    
13. 
    192 – Muamba rail disaster (Mozambique, 2002)
    
14. 
    155 – Kaprun disaster (Austria, 2000)
    
15. 
    154 – Ryongchon disaster (North Korea, 2004)
    
16. 
    148 – Gyaneshwari Express train derailment, (India, 2010)
    
17. 
    132 – Ghotki rail crash (Sindh, Pakistan, 2005)
    
18. 
    130+ – Rafiganj train disaster (India, 2002)
    
19. 
    114+ – Veligonda train disaster (India, 2005)
    
20. 
    107 – Amagasaki rail crash (Japan, 2005)
    
21. 
    100+ – Benaleka train crash, (Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2007)
    

Other accidents

1. 
   200+ – Landslide on the road between San Francisco and Mocoa in Colombia, 1989^{[citation needed]}
   
2. 
   90 – Frank Slide (Frank, Alberta, 29 April 1903)
   
3. 
   67 – Po Shan Road landslide, (Mid-levels, Hong Kong, 18 June 1972)
   
4. 
   64 – Sverdlovsk anthrax leak (Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, April 2, 1979)
   
5. 
   48 – Vostok rocket explosion (Plesetsk spacecenter, Russia, March 18, 1980)
   
6. 
   30 – Tram derailment (Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, 13 July 1947)
   
7. 
   15 – Tram derailment (Szczecin, Poland, 7 December 1967)
   
8. 
   13 – Tram derailment (Gothenburg, Sweden, 12 March 1992)
   
9. 
   10 – 2011 Saxony-Anhalt train accident, January 29, 2011
   
10. 
    9 – June 22, 2009 Washington Metro train collision, June 22, 2009
    
11. 
    8 – Avalanche, Lewes, Sussex, England, 27 December 1836. Worst British avalanche disaster.
    
12. 
    7 – 87-Automobile pile-up on Highway 401 freeway just east of Windsor Ontario, Canada after an unusually thick fog from Lake Saint Clair, September 3 (Labour Day) 1999.
    
13. 
    3 – May 10, 2007 The 7 car crash on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was the worst incident in the spans history, May 10, 2007
    

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