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'ABSTRACT This study aims to explore and examine current preparedness of the civil defence departments in handling industrial accidents in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve this main aim and other inherent objectives, qualitative research method represented in semi-structured interview approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 managers working for civil defence departments and 8 community leaders. The eastern region has been exposed to many industrial accidents such as fires within the factories and oil platforms and refineries and leakage of gas and accidents involving trucks loaded with chemicals as well as environmental pollution and leakage from some factories in the radioactive process. The results concluded that industrial accidents in the eastern province cause direct impact and harm people and their surroundings which lead to damage the environment. It is worth mentioning that there are no any governmental and/or non-governmental organisations responsible for watching what is happening in the industrial areas. It was also shown that there are several industrial accidents that caused by factories and industrial areas in the eastern province that are exposed to different types of accidents such as chemical, physical and fires that come from factories and other industries. The results showed that all civil departments in the eastern province have not developed any awareness programmes for foreign workforce due to lack of vision and communication with different sections of expatriates. It can be concluded that language forms an obstacle of communication with foreign origins. The results of interviews regarding preparedness showed that the Civil Defence Departments in all areas have not developed preparedness plans that follow the international standards or international scientific bodies that it relies on to evaluate its preparation. The performance is evaluated through the cases of rapid response and the number of casualties and deaths in the accidents. Indicatives from officials to prepare an evaluation of the response unit based on the arrival time of the teams and their concentration and the manpower and the machinery, etc. It can be concluded from that voluntarism culture does not exist among community organisations and individuals. This requires instill the culture of working on different issues a great civil defence department on visiting the community organisations as well as household to motivate them to participate in all activities related to disasters and industrial accidents. Keywords: Preparedness, Industrial Accidents, Managers, Community Leaders, Planning, collaboration, coordination, Awareness.'