A number of firefighters and ambulances were immediately sent to the scene in İzmir’s Konak district. Some apartment buildings were badly damaged by the blast.
İzmir Mayor Ali Kocaoğlu visited the scene of the accident and said on Friday that experts are still investigating the reason behind the explosion but that it is believed it was caused by the air tank. “Two workers died and four others were injured.
Nobody wants to experience a work accident. However, work accidents can happen at every workplace. Unfortunately, we cannot prevent these kinds of accidents from happening. I hope the four workers recover,” Kocaoğlu said, underlining that compensation for the property damage caused by the incident will be taken care of quickly.
According to news reports, Raşit Topal (40) and Ahmet Ertekin (29) died at the scene. Their bodies were taken to İzmir’s Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK). Injured workers Erkan Asal (23) and Fatih Demirer (53) were sent to İzmir’s Dokuz Eylül University Hospital, while Hakan Topal (25) and Ökkeş Yıldız (24) were taken to the city’s Atatürk Teaching and Research Hospital following the accident.
Topal’s body was sent to his hometown of Bartın after an autopsy at the ATK on Saturday. His 16-year-old son Beytullah Topal said his father had started to work on the subway project just four days ago and added that he could not believe that his father had died. Ertekin, who was married with one child, was buried in İzmir on Saturday. Ertekin had also started to work on the subway four days earlier. Locals were shocked by the explosion. Cevat Alp Bahar witnessed the blast; he was at his home with his sister when the incident took place. “The glass in our house was broken following the blast. Fortunately, we were not hurt, but we were very scared,” Bahar said on Saturday.
As part of an investigation launched by the İzmir police, three people, identified as H.B., the general manager of a firm carrying out the subway’s construction, S.E., the supervisor of the construction, and G.O., the general manager of the project, gave testimony to police. They were later released.
