A blast and subsequent fire at the HABAŞ iron and steel plant in Aliağa, a district of İzmir on Turkey's Aegean coast, left 17 workers dead and 14 injured, one of them seriously, according to figures announced by Turkish officials and reported by Hürriyet. The accident occurred around midday on Monday, November 9, 2026, during scheduled maintenance work, and the death toll rose through the evening as authorities updated the count.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initially said 16 people had died and 13 were hurt, two of them badly. Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu later announced that one more injured worker had succumbed to his injuries, bringing the confirmed death toll to 17, Hürriyet reported.
Why it matters
The incident is one of the deadliest industrial accidents at a Turkish metals facility in recent years, and it has renewed scrutiny of safety practices at large manufacturing sites. The plant is a major operation: Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said roughly 1,800 people work there at any one time, describing it as a large industrial complex.
The scale of the loss, and the fact that it happened during routine upkeep rather than full production, has focused attention on how maintenance is planned and supervised at heavy-industry sites. Labour and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan said the workplace employs 37 occupational safety specialists, two workplace physicians and one additional health staff member, and that his ministry's inspection board had carried out periodic audits there.
What officials say happened
Accounts from two ministers described the sequence slightly differently. İzmir's governor's office said preliminary findings pointed to an overhead crane breaking and falling into an electric arc furnace while molten steel was being poured. Bayraktar, speaking to reporters after touring the site, said a chain on an arc furnace snapped during maintenance that is carried out every two weeks.
Işıkhan said initial examinations indicated that falling material during the ongoing maintenance ruptured natural gas and oxygen pipes, which triggered the explosion. Fire crews extinguished the blaze that followed, according to Bayraktar.
The governor's office and the ministers' statements were reported by Hürriyet. The differences between the descriptions reflect the early stage of the investigation rather than confirmed conclusions.
Detentions and investigations
Bayraktar said the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has ordered the detention of six people in connection with the accident and is running an investigation, adding that the number could rise. He said anyone found negligent would be pursued, and that the government would see to the needs of the victims' families.
Işıkhan said a chief inspector had been assigned to examine safety measures at the site and to establish whether there was negligence or fault. Both administrative and criminal inquiries are under way, he said, and the Justice Ministry would act on any findings of responsibility.
The three ministers — Bayraktar, Işıkhan and Memişoğlu — travelled to the plant together and also visited injured workers in hospital, according to Hürriyet. Memişoğlu said in a social media statement that medical teams were continuing to treat the wounded.
Reaction beyond the government
The accident drew political reaction. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the İstanbul mayor, criticised the loss of life at the facility, with Cumhuriyet reporting his remark that worker deaths are not fate. Hürriyet also reported that a person set himself on fire at the plant following the explosion, an incident covered separately by Habertürk.
Sözcü Gazetesi published a report after the disaster concerning Mehmet Rüştü Başaran, the head of HABAŞ, describing a detail it characterised as shocking; the specifics of that report were not included in the material reviewed here.
A toll that kept rising
The casualty count moved upward over the course of Monday. Erdoğan's initial statement of 16 dead and 13 injured was followed by Memişoğlu's announcement of an additional death, and by the evening the figures stood at 17 dead and 14 injured, one critically. Bayraktar, speaking earlier in the day, had put the number of injured at about 15.
Authorities said identification of the dead was under way, with some procedures completed, and that families were being informed. Bayraktar said the state would handle all the families' needs.
What to watch
The prosecutor's investigation and the Labour Ministry's inspection will determine whether the maintenance procedures, the equipment involved or the supervision of the work are found to have contributed to the accident. The number of people detained may increase, and the findings of the chief inspector are likely to shape both the criminal case and any regulatory consequences for the plant.
