A massive explosion at a steel plant in western Turkey's İzmir province on Monday has left 17 people dead.
The blast occurred at around 11:46am local time at the HABAS Demir Çelik factory in the Aliağa district. İzmir Governor Süleyman Elban said an overhead crane collapsed into an electric arc furnace during maintenance work, damaging a gas line and triggering the explosion and a fire.
One worker told AFP a more detailed sequence: a snapped crane cable sent roughly 120 tonnes of molten steel crashing onto the furnace, causing a violent reaction.
The force of the blast caught workers and nearby residents off guard. Witness Deniz Ülker told Turkey's Anadolu Agency: “It felt like the ground was moving beneath my feet. I thought there was an earthquake. When I looked at the factory across the street, thick black smoke was rising, and there was a fire where the chimney is.”
Truck driver Turan İlbay, who worked at the plant, said: “It was like a bomb exploding.”
Aerial footage showed emergency vehicles surrounding the industrial complex as ambulances ferried casualties to nearby hospitals. The fire was later extinguished, but rescue teams continued searching the wreckage.
Casualties and investigation
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said after a cabinet meeting that the explosion killed 16 people and injured 13, two of them critically. Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu later announced that one of the seriously wounded had died, raising the toll to 17.
Around 200 employees were in the affected area at the time fewer than the usual 300-plus because production had been suspended for maintenance.
Judicial and administrative investigations are under way. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said four prosecutors had been assigned to the case, while Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar confirmed six suspects had been detained, with more arrests not ruled out.
Not the first tragedy
It is not the first fatal incident at the HABAS plant. According to Turkish newspaper Evrensel, at least 11 workers have died there over the past decade. The Labour Party said on social media that this was the third worker death at the facility in three weeks on 21 October, one worker fell eight metres from a ladder and died, while another was killed when a tyre on heavy machinery exploded while being inflated.
HABAS Group is one of Turkey's leading private steel producers. The plant was founded in 1987 and has an annual capacity of about 4.5 million tonnes.
Leave a comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
