Four killed in explosion in TÜPRAŞ oil refinery in Turkey’s İzmir

Four people were killed in a storage tank explosion at a facility of Turkey’s sole oil refining company TÜPRAŞ, in the Aegean province of İzmir on Oct. 11, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

“This is an instant explosion. There is no other fire, leak or situation that would affect TÜPRAŞ’s general condition or activities,” İzmir’s Aliağa District Governor Bayram Yılmaz told reporters in front of the refinery.

Yılmaz said the incident was “unfortunate,” but such accidents could occur from time to time. The governor added that the blast occurred during work on a naphtha gas tank that had been out of use for a long time and confirmed that the explosion was an accident caused by gas pressure in a boiler.

“As a result of the explosion, four of our workers have died. There were two people affected due to the incident. We know one of them is injured, but his [health] situation is not severe,” Yılmaz said.

“[This is a] judicial case. The attorney general is at the scene of the incident. The police are here to conduct their examination. The details will be revealed after a technical analysis,” he said further.

The İzmir Governor’s Office also released a written statement regarding the explosion, saying the fire was brought under control, while the fire department has still been trying to extinguish the fire. “A judiciary and administrative investigation has been launched regarding the accident,” the statement said.

The name of the deceased workers were announced as Kemal Şaşmazer, Yusuf Kepenek, Mehmet Karademir and Mehmet Dere by the statement.

TÜPRAŞ is Turkey’s largest industrial enterprise, with 28.1 million tons of crude processing capacity. Tüpraş has four refineries operating in four different cities across Turkey.