Explosion at a Habaş steel plant near Izmir kills 17 workers after a crane falls into a furnace during maintenance, Turkish officials say

An explosion tore through the HABAŞ iron and steel plant in Aliağa, in Turkey’s western Izmir province, on Monday, Nov. 9, killing 17 workers, according to Turkish officials cited by the BBC and AFP. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan first put the toll at 16 after a cabinet meeting in Ankara. “Sixteen people lost their lives in the explosion, while 13 others are receiving medical treatment, two of whom are in critical condition,” Erdoğan said, in AFP’s translation. Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu later updated the figure to 17 after one of the critically injured died, AFP and the BBC report.

Izmir Governor Süleyman Elban said the blast happened at about 11:46 a.m. local time during “furnace replacement work,” as Anadolu Agency phrases it, when a ceiling crane collapsed and “materials” fell into an electric arc furnace, “triggering an explosion after damaging a natural gas line.” Reuters, citing a statement from the governor’s office, says initial findings show a ceiling crane “snapped and fell into an arc furnace during the liquid steel casting process.” AFP quotes Elban as describing “a boiler replacement operation.” Labor Minister Vedat Işıkhan said initial checks pointed to falling material rupturing natural-gas and oxygen pipes, according to an Anadolu Agency post summarizing the ministers’ remarks in Turkish.

A worker gave AFP a different mechanism. “The crane rope broke, and as a result, about 120 tonnes of liquid steel fell onto the furnace. Because there are water-cooled panels inside the furnace, the liquid steel caused a hydrogen explosion when it came into contact with the water beneath it,” Yasin Cetiner, 52, told AFP. Governor Elban, by contrast, told reporters that no steel production took place at the moment of the blast because of the boiler change, according to İhlas News Agency, while Erdoğan, in the presidency’s Turkish transcript, placed the blast during liquid steel casting. This desk found no official answer to the worker’s account and could not check either one.

The toll climbed through the day. Reuters, in an early report citing the governor’s office, said 14 people got hurt, three seriously, and that rescuers sought to reach 10 people “still trapped under the rubble.” The governor’s office later put the dead at six, per an Anadolu Agency post quoting it, and Elban then told reporters that 10 had died, 15 lay in hospital and four more people likely remained under the debris, according to İhlas News Agency and Anadolu. Elban said about 200 people worked in the area at the time, against more than 300 during normal production, according to Anadolu. The BBC gives the injured count as 12 in its latest version.

Eyewitnesses described the moment of the blast. Deniz Ulker told AFP it felt like an “earthquake.” “There was a massive explosion... Then I looked across at the factory, and there was thick smoke coming from the chimney and giant flames,” she said. The BBC says footage showed a large fire inside the facility and “a towering column of smoke,” while Reuters says local TV showed “large plumes of grey dust rising above the plant.”

Erdoğan said investigators would establish responsibility. “The circumstances surrounding this tragic incident ... how and why it happened, whether there was any negligence and who bears responsibility, will be established,” he said, according to AFP. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said four prosecutors had taken on the case, and the Social Security Institution assigned a chief inspector, NTV and BBC News Türkçe report. The Interior Ministry said in a statement that Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi had assigned two chief civil inspectors to examine the causes of the blast and whether any negligence or fault played a part. Energy Minister Bayraktar said prosecutors had issued detention orders for six people and that the number could rise, per Anadolu Agency; TRT Haber and NTV also report six suspects detained, while the BBC says at least five people got arrested, citing local media via its Turkish service.

NTV reports that an Aliağa criminal judgeship, at the chief prosecutor’s request, banned all news, interviews, criticism and commentary about the case file until the investigation ends, saying such posts misled the public. Labor Minister Işıkhan said the workplace employed 37 occupational health and safety specialists and two workplace doctors and that his ministry had inspected it at various times, according to NTV.

HABAŞ, a privately owned conglomerate and one of Turkey’s biggest steel producers, declined to answer AFP’s questions, AFP reports; in a statement cited by BBC News Türkçe, the company said the accident occurred during planned maintenance on one of its electric arc furnaces. Workers’ groups say the company has a “chequered safety record,” per AFP. The Health and Safety Labour Watch (İSİG), as cited by BBC News Türkçe, says two other workers, Hakan Doğan and Eyüp Eğinli, died in separate accidents at the same plant in the previous two weeks. The left-wing daily Evrensel says at least 11 workers had died at the site over the past decade, and the small Labour Party says Monday marked the third time in three weeks that workers lost their lives at HABAŞ, according to AFP.

AFP says the atmosphere outside both the hospital and the factory turned very tense. Evrensel reported riot police outside the Aliağa hospital and said the brother of one victim set himself alight outside the factory in protest before onlookers intervened, AFP reports, adding that his condition remained unclear. Two representatives of the leftist Aegean Workers’ Collective got arrested outside the hospital while trying to make a statement on workplace safety, a spokesman told AFP. “The HABAS management’s blind greed for profit has resulted in a major disaster today,” spokesman Oktay Turk said. The pro-Kurdish DEM party called the deaths a “workers’ massacre,” and workers called a protest in an Aliağa square for Tuesday evening under the banner “Enough is enough, we do not want to die!”, according to AFP.

The plant sits about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Izmir, AFP says, and the BBC describes the district as a major port and one of Turkey’s main shipbreaking hubs. The BBC cites the Turkish Health and Safety Labor Watch as saying workplace accidents remain a chronic problem in Turkey. What comes next: a DEM co-chair, named in AFP’s copy as “Tulay Haimogullari,” plans a site visit and a news conference on Tuesday morning, according to AFP, and identification of the dead continues, Energy Minister Bayraktar said, per NTV.