Turkey Steel Plant Explosion Kills 16, Injures 15

An explosion at a steel plant in western Turkey has killed 16 people and injured 15 others, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

The blast occurred on Monday at the HABAS Demir Celik factory in Aliaga, about 60 kilometres north of the port city of Izmir. Erdogan announced the updated death toll after earlier reports put the number of fatalities at 10.

Izmir Governor Suleyman Elban said the explosion happened during a boiler replacement operation. An overhead crane reportedly collapsed into a large electric furnace used in the steelmaking process, triggering the blast.

“While a boiler replacement operation was being carried out at the HABAS iron and steel factory, the overhead crane fell and landed in the arc furnace, causing an explosion in the steel mill behind it,” Elban told reporters at the scene.

He initially said eight workers were trapped under the rubble, while 15 others were taken to hospital. Four of the injured were in critical condition.

Rescue teams worked to remove the collapsed structure and search for workers trapped beneath the debris. Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke rising into the sky as flames engulfed part of the factory.

An eyewitness, Deniz Ulker, said the explosion felt like an earthquake.

“When I looked at the factory across the street, thick black smoke was coming out. A fire broke out where the chimney was,” Ulker told Anadolu.

Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay said rescue workers were still trying to remove the collapsed platform. He added that the full extent of the casualties would become clear after the wreckage was cleared.

Meanwhile, workers’ groups have raised concerns about safety conditions at HABAS, one of Turkey’s largest steel producers. The Evrensel daily reported that at least 11 workers had died at the factory over the past decade before Monday’s explosion.

Turkey’s Labour Party also claimed that two workers had died in separate workplace accidents at the factory in the three weeks before the blast. One worker reportedly died after falling eight metres from a ladder on October 21. Another was killed when a tyre he was inflating on a construction machine exploded.

Outside the hospital where the injured workers were taken, police arrested two representatives of the Aegean Workers’ Collective as they tried to speak about workplace safety, according to a group spokesman.

The group’s representative, Oktay Turk, blamed the factory’s management for the disaster.

“The HABAS management’s blind greed for profit has resulted in a major disaster today,” he told AFP.

“Those responsible for this massacre must be brought to justice,” he added, calling for the immediate release of the arrested representatives.

The group also alleged that poor working conditions had contributed to previous deaths at the factory. It said five of the 11 workers who died over the past decade were subcontracted workers, while two were trainees. It further claimed that HABAS had not faced any effective sanctions despite the history of workplace fatalities.

HABAS declined to respond to questions from an AFP journalist following Monday’s explosion.