The explosion and fire struck the steelworks in Aliağa, Turkey, on 9 November. The justice minister said prosecutors opened an investigation and assigned 4 prosecutors to examine the disaster.
The death toll from the explosion and fire at the HABAŞ steelworks in Aliağa, in Turkey’s İzmir province, has risen to 18, Armenpress said, relaying RIA Novosti’s report citing the newspaper Cumhuriyet. The blast occurred on 9 November 2026.
Turkey’s Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the Menemen chief public prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation and assigned 4 prosecutors. Prosecutors and experts were examining the scene while rescuers worked to reach workers under the rubble.
BBC said at least 5 people had been arrested, citing its Turkish service’s reporting based on local media. The arrests do not establish responsibility for the explosion.
Earlier official counts changed as workers were recovered from the rubble and injured people died in hospital. Successive governor’s office updates carried by DHA described that progression.
| Update | Deaths | Injured |
|---|---|---|
| Initial governor’s office statement | 3 | 14 |
| After 1 hospitalized casualty and 2 people recovered from rubble died | 6 | Not specified in that update |
| Governor Süleyman Elban’s later statement | 10 | 15 |
After a Cabinet meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said 13 people were receiving treatment, including 2 in critical condition. Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu later announced that a critically injured worker had died, taking the death toll to 17.
BBC and DW subsequently gave an injury count of 12. Authorities said everyone killed or injured was a plant worker.
Elban had earlier said 4 people remained under rubble. Erdoğan later said search and rescue operations continued alongside the investigation. İzmir Mayor Cemil Tugay said municipal firefighters had extinguished the blaze and teams were removing a collapsed platform; he said the final casualty count would become clear after debris removal.
The governor’s office said injured people were taken to hospitals for treatment. HABAŞ said its emergency teams provided initial assistance before transferring injured colleagues to hospitals.
The İzmir governor’s office preliminarily assessed that a hoist may have broken loose and fallen into an electric arc furnace during molten-steel casting. An electric arc furnace uses electricity to melt steel.
HABAŞ said scheduled maintenance was underway on a furnace. Elban also said steel production was not taking place. In comments quoted by Haberler.com, he said about 200 workers were reportedly present during boiler-replacement maintenance, compared with more than 300 on a normal shift. DW described the line as being between shifts rather than actively producing steel.
In preliminary accounts, Governor Elban said a crane carrying a replacement boiler collapsed, dropping materials into a furnace below, according to BBC. The Guardian, relaying AFP, reported his account that the crane fell into a furnace during the replacement, causing an explosion in a nearby steel mill; he also said falling materials struck a natural-gas line and caused an explosion, according to Haberler.com.
Early accounts also differed on timing. An earlier account gave approximately 11:30 local time (12:30 Yerevan time), while the governor’s office put the blast at approximately 12:00 local time (13:00 Yerevan time).
HABAŞ said work with official institutions to establish the cause was continuing. The investigation still has to establish what caused the explosion.
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