ISTANBUL — A huge explosion and fire at an iron and steelworks in western Turkey left 16 people dead Monday, officials said.
The fire at the HABAS plant in Aliaga, Izmir province, also injured 13 people, two of them critically, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address following a scheduled Cabinet meeting.
“Judicial and administrative investigations have been launched into the explosion,” Erdogan said. “The reasons and circumstances of this tragic event, which has deeply saddened our nation, as well as whose negligence was involved and who is responsible, will be revealed.”
Provincial Gov. Suleyman Elban said that a crane fell into a furnace as it was replacing a boiler, causing an explosion in a nearby steel mill. There were 200 workers in the vicinity instead of the usual 300 because production had been halted for the boiler switch, he said.
Earlier, broadcaster NTV showed images of the immediate aftermath of the explosion, with a large fire inside the facility and a tall column of smoke rising.
“The ground shook. It was very intense,” witness Nuri Ali Ulker was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Another witness, Deniz Ulker, said that the explosion “felt like the earth’s crust was shifting beneath us. I thought it was an earthquake,” according to Anadolu.
Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said that emergency teams fought the blaze while searching for casualties.
“Our injured compatriots have been taken to hospitals and their health is being closely monitored,” he posted on social media.
The governor’s office said that the blast happened around noon (0900 GMT). It said that an investigation had been launched and Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said that four public prosecutors had been assigned to the case.
The private Demiroren News Agency reported that five people were detained in relation to the explosion.
Aliaga has a large port and is known for shipbreaking, which critics say has caused significant environmental damage and has led to calls to remove its shipbreaking yard from the European Union’s list of ship recycling facilities.
The disaster came as world leaders and environmental activists gathered in Antalya, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, for talks on curbing climate change.
The HABAS plant was established in 1987 and can produce 4.5 million tons of steel annually, according to the company’s website.
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