Seventeen workers died and 13 others were injured on Monday when an explosion tore through the HABAS Demir Çelik steel mill in Aliağa, İzmir province, after an overhead crane failed during a scheduled furnace maintenance job and dropped a heavy load into a running electric arc furnace, Turkish officials said.
İzmir Governor Süleyman Elban told reporters the fire broke out around midday on 9 November after a crane carrying a replacement boiler collapsed into the furnace area during liquid-steel casting work. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initially put the death toll at 16, but Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu later said one critically injured worker had died in hospital, raising the count to 17. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Labour Minister Vedat Işıkhan visited injured workers at local hospitals alongside Memişoğlu.
What witnesses and the company say happened
HABAS, one of Turkey's largest private steel producers, said the accident occurred while one electric arc furnace was shut for maintenance. Video from the site showed a tall plume of smoke and flames inside the plant north of the port city of İzmir. Worker Yasin Çetiner told AFP that a crane cable snapped and roughly 120 tonnes of liquid steel fell onto the furnace; contact between molten metal and water-cooled panels inside the vessel can trigger a violent hydrogen reaction. Witnesses described the blast as shaking the ground hard enough that some initially thought an earthquake had struck.
Elban said some personnel may still be under debris and that search operations were continuing into the evening. Turkish labour groups have long criticized fatal accidents at heavy industrial sites, and worker advocates again pointed to HABAS's safety record after Monday's deaths. The facility in Bozköy, established in 1987, is among the country's major flat and long steel suppliers.
Investigations and arrests
Erdoğan told a cabinet meeting that authorities would determine whether negligence played a role and who bears responsibility. Turkish media reported that prosecutors assigned four investigators to the case and that at least five people had been detained; İçişleri Bakanlığı also dispatched two senior civil inspectors to review the incident. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said officials would publish findings as the inquiry advances.
Aliağa hosts a dense cluster of refineries and metals plants on the Aegean coast, and Monday's toll is among the deadliest industrial accidents Turkey has reported in recent years. Families gathered outside the mill as ambulance convoys moved casualties to hospitals across İzmir. Officials have not said when production might resume on the affected line.
What happens next
Rescue teams were still clearing collapsed platforms on Monday night, and health authorities were treating the wounded at multiple hospitals. Prosecutors are expected to expand questioning of plant managers and maintenance contractors as forensic teams examine crane rigging and furnace controls. Union leaders called for an independent workplace-safety review beyond the company statement that the work was routine scheduled maintenance.
Steel markets were watching for any export disruption from HABAS, which can produce millions of tonnes annually, though government officials have emphasized the investigation stage and support for victims' families over immediate production forecasts.