October 7, 2023
About twelve hundred killed in a day, most of them civilians at home or at a music festival.
1,195 killed
The work
These days are held here with what they took and nobody named on them yet. Finding the names is the work: coroners' lists, newspapers of the time, memorial trusts, families. It is a gap in the work and never a judgement about who belongs.
3,608
held · 59 days
53
days
1,029,873
to name
Grenfell Tower
Seventy-two killed. Neighbours went up the stairs.
72 died
Manchester
Twenty-two killed, many of them children and their parents waiting to collect them.
22 killed
Paris
A hundred and thirty killed across six sites on a Friday evening.
130 killed
Mina
At least two thousand four hundred killed on the third day of the Hajj.
2,431 died
Yarnell Hill
Nineteen of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Twenty went in.
19 died
Rana Plaza
One thousand one hundred and thirty-four killed. They had been told the building was safe.
1,134 died
Oslo and Utøya
Seventy-seven killed: eight by a bomb in Oslo, sixty-nine on the island at Utøya.
77 killed
The Tōhoku tsunami
Nearly twenty thousand killed. A town employee stayed at the microphone broadcasting the warning until the water reached her.
19,759 died
The Haiti earthquake
Between a hundred thousand and three hundred thousand killed in thirty-five seconds.
220,000 died
London
Fifty-two killed. Underground staff went back down into the tunnels.
52 killed
The Indian Ocean tsunami
About two hundred and twenty-eight thousand killed in fourteen countries.
227,898 died
Beslan
Three hundred and thirty-four killed, a hundred and eighty-six of them children.
334 killed
Madrid
A hundred and ninety-three killed on the morning trains into Atocha.
193 killed
The Station nightclub
A hundred killed. The fire reached the ceiling in thirty seconds.
100 died
Kaprun
A hundred and fifty-five killed. Twelve lived by going downhill.
155 died
The Kursk
A hundred and eighteen killed. Twenty-three survived the explosions and wrote notes in the dark.
118 died
Dunblane
Sixteen five-year-olds and their teacher.
17 killed
Sampoong department store
Five hundred and two killed. The management knew and left the store open.
502 died
Oklahoma City
A hundred and sixty-eight killed, nineteen of them children in the daycare on the second floor.
168 killed
The Estonia
Eight hundred and fifty-two killed. The worst European sea disaster since the war.
852 died
Storm King Mountain
Fourteen wildland firefighters, running uphill.
14 died
The Marchioness
Fifty-one killed, most of them in their twenties.
51 died
Hillsborough
Ninety-seven killed. Supporters tore down advertising hoardings to carry the injured.
97 died
Lockerbie
Two hundred and seventy killed: two hundred and fifty-nine aboard and eleven in their houses.
270 killed
Piper Alpha
A hundred and sixty-seven killed. Men jumped a hundred and seventy-five feet into burning water.
167 died
King's Cross
Thirty-one killed, including the station officer who went back in.
31 died
The Herald of Free Enterprise
A hundred and ninety-three killed in ninety seconds, most of them British.
193 died
Chernobyl
Thirty-one in the first months. The toll has been rising for forty years and this roll is not closed.
the toll is not closed
Air India 182
Three hundred and twenty-nine killed, most of them Canadians, eighty-six of them children.
329 killed
Heysel
Thirty-nine killed, most of them Italian, an hour before kick-off.
39 died
Bradford City
Fifty-six killed. It was being broadcast live.
56 died
Bhopal
Several thousand in the first days and tens of thousands since. This roll is not closed.
the toll is not closed
The Hyatt Regency walkways
A hundred and fourteen killed. They were dancing.
114 died
Bologna
Eighty-five killed on the first Saturday of the August holidays.
85 killed
Tenerife
Five hundred and eighty-three killed. The deadliest accident in aviation.
583 died
Tangshan
At least two hundred and forty-two thousand killed while the city slept.
242,769 died
Ibrox
Sixty-six killed on a stairway as the crowd was leaving.
66 died
The Bhola cyclone
Between three hundred thousand and half a million killed. The deadliest cyclone ever recorded.
300,000 died
Aberfan
A hundred and forty-four killed, a hundred and sixteen of them children.
144 died
Vajont
About nineteen hundred killed. The dam held. The villages below did not.
1,917 died
Our Lady of the Angels
Ninety-two children and three nuns.
95 died
Texas City
Five hundred and eighty-one killed, including every man of the Texas City fire department.
581 died
The Hartford circus fire
A hundred and sixty-seven killed, most of them children.
167 died
The Cocoanut Grove
Four hundred and ninety-two killed. The main door was a revolving door and it jammed.
492 died
The Hindenburg
Thirty-six killed. The ground crew ran under a burning airship to catch people jumping.
36 died
The Halifax explosion
About eighteen hundred killed and nine thousand hurt. The largest man-made explosion before the atomic bomb.
1,782 died
Senghenydd
Four hundred and thirty-nine killed. The worst mining disaster in British history.
439 died
The Titanic
About fifteen hundred killed. Every engineer stayed below to keep the lights on, and every engineer died.
1,500 died
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
A hundred and forty-six garment workers, most of them young immigrant women, behind doors locked from the outside.
146 died
Monongah
About three hundred and sixty-two killed. The worst mining disaster in American history.
362 died
Courrières
One thousand and ninety-nine killed, the worst mining disaster in Europe.
1,099 died
The General Slocum
A thousand and twenty-one killed, almost all of them women and children of one German parish.
1,021 died
If you hold a roll for any of these — a list, a book of remembrance, a family's own record — it belongs here more than it belongs in a drawer. Nothing on this gate is owned by it: a family or an institution may claim a record and keep it themselves.
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