Five workers killed, 16 injured in explosion at textile factory in Turkey’s Bursa

BURSA

Five workers were killed and 16 people were injured in an explosion at a textile factory in the northwestern province of Bursa early on Nov. 8.

The blast occurred at around 11:30 a.m. in the boiler of a textile factory in the Uludağ Organized Industrial Site in Bursa’s Gürsü district.

The roof of the factory collapsed in the explosion and pieces from it were spread over an area of around 200 square meters.

Fire crews, ambulances, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) teams and National Medical Recovery Team (UMKE) units were dispatched to scene.

Labor and Social Security Minister Jülide Sarıeroğlu said an investigation has been opened into the incident.

“We have been informed that five laborer brothers were killed and 16 people in the area at the same time as the explosion were wounded, according to initial reports,” Sarıeroğlu said, expressing condolences for those killed.

She also added that the injured people under treatment are not in a critical condition.

Those killed in the explosion have been identified as Yavuz Demir, İbrahim Can, Yasir Saraç and Syrian citizens Ebu Hüseyin and Muhammed Hassif.

Uludağ Organized Industrial Site chair Yunus Aydın said the factory had not been renewed in recent years.

“This factory was one of the three industrial plants that did not renew themselves, among the 250 facilities in the area,” Aydın said, adding that the facility was founded in the 1990s.

Aside from those killed and injured, total damage from the blast amounts to around one million Turkish Liras, he said.

“It is clear that there has been negligence. A boiler does not explode unless pressure has risen to three or four times the regular level,” Aydın said.

One of the witness of the explosion, Yener Karal, said they heard a huge boom when the blast occurred.

“We dropped everything and started running, heading outside. Outside we saw that the factory has just gone. All the windows were broken,” Karal said.

Another witness, Fedai Başkacı, also working at the factory, described the incident as resembling a “battlefield.”

“The machine where I was working jumped from one place to another. The lamps began to fall. Once we went outside we saw smoke rising from the building. There was no fire but it looked like a battlefield,” Başkacı said.