An explosion and fire tore through the HABAS iron and steel plant in Izmir province in western Turkey on 9 November.^[1] Seventeen workers were killed, the health minister confirmed.^[2] At least 11 workers had died at the same plant over the previous decade, the Evrensel newspaper reported.^[3] Read together, reports from eight outlets show two things. The toll rose almost threefold over the day, from six to 17. And one blast killed more workers than the plant had lost in the ten years before it, by the count Evrensel published. The site The plant is in Aliaga, about 60 kilometres north of Izmir.^[4] HABAS is a privately owned conglomerate and one of Turkey's top steel producers.^[5] The plant was founded in 1987.^[6] It can produce 4.5 million tons of steel a year.^[7] About 200 workers were at the plant when the explosion happened.^[8] They were there for a maintenance operation.^[9] The explosion happened at about 11:46 a.m. local time, during furnace replacement work, the Express Tribune reported.^[10] How the toll rose The first counts were lower. The Hurriyet Daily News reported six dead.^[11] It reported eight workers missing at that point.^[12] Search and rescue work was still under way for people trapped inside.^[13] The count then rose to 16. The Associated Press reported at least 16 dead.^[14] Agence France-Presse, in a report carried by the Kuwait Times, gave 16 dead and 13 injured.^[15] CTV News carried the same figure of 16 dead.^[16] Arab News gave 16 dead.^[17] The Express Tribune also reported 16 dead and 13 injured.^[18] The final figure in these reports is 17. Bianet reported 17 workers killed.^[19] The South China Morning Post reported the same number.^[20] Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu confirmed that the death toll had risen to 17.^[2] The injured count held near 13. The Hurriyet Daily News reported 13 injured, two of them critically.^[21] The Associated Press also reported 13 injured.^[22] Two of the injured were in critical condition.^[23] Agence France-Presse said two of the injured were in serious condition.^[24] CTV News reported 13 injured.^[25] Arab News also reported 13 injured.^[26] Bianet gave a lower figure, at least 12 injured.^[27] Side by side, the counts show that the eight missing in the early report closely match the rise in the dead. The early count was six dead and eight missing, a total of 14. The later count was 16 dead and then 17. Rescuers kept searching for missing workers as the count rose.^[28] Search and rescue operations were still going on at the site when the Express Tribune filed its report.^[29] What failed Every account in this set names a crane as the start of the failure. They differ on the stage of the work and on what the crane set off. The Associated Press reported that a crane fell into a furnace during a boiler replacement.^[30] Izmir governor Suleyman Elban said the explosion happened during a boiler replacement operation.^[31] The Hurriyet Daily News said an overhead crane fell into a furnace during steel casting.^[32] Bianet said preliminary findings point to an overhead crane falling into an electric arc furnace while molten steel was being poured.^[33] Agence France-Presse said an overhead crane fell into an arc furnace.^[34] Arab News gave the same cause.^[35] Two reports describe a further step. A worker told reporters the crane rope broke and dropped 120 tonnes of liquid steel.^[36] The liquid steel then met water-cooled panels, which caused a hydrogen explosion, by that account.^[37] The Express Tribune reported that a ceiling crane collapsed and damaged a gas line, which set off the explosion.^[38] These accounts do not contradict each other on the crane. They leave open which of the two mechanisms, molten steel on cooled panels or a damaged gas line, produced the blast. None of the reports gives an official finding on that point. The investigation President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered an investigation.^[39] He ordered a safety inquiry.^[40] Judicial and administrative investigations were opened.^[41] Four public prosecutors were assigned to the case.^[42] Five people were detained in connection with the explosion.^[43] Several government ministers travelled to the region.^[44] HABAS declined to answer questions from Agence France-Presse.^[45] The safety record Workers' groups said HABAS has a poor safety record.^[46] Evrensel reported at least 11 worker deaths at the site over the past decade.^[3] Arab News carried the same figure.^[47] Bianet reported numerous fatal workplace accidents at the HABAS facilities in Aliaga since the late 1990s.^[48] The Labour Party said this was the third worker death at HABAS in three weeks.^[49] Set against that record, the 9 November blast killed 17 people in one day. That is more than the at least 11 deaths Evrensel counted at the site over the ten years before it. Outside the plant Anti-riot police were deployed outside the hospital in Aliaga.^[50] The brother of a worker who died set himself alight outside the factory.^[51] Two representatives of the Aegean Workers' Collective were arrested outside the hospital.^[52] Workers called for a protest in Aliaga on Tuesday evening.^[53] The DEM party called for those responsible to be brought to justice.^[54] DEM co-chair Tulay Haimogullari planned to visit the site on Tuesday.^[55] What comes next Four prosecutors now hold the case.^[42] The first step in it was the detention of five people.^[43] Two of the injured remained in critical condition.^[23] The plant, which has run in Aliaga since 1987, is the subject of both a judicial and an administrative inquiry.^[56][57] The reports agree on the toll of 17 and on a crane falling during furnace work. They differ on what the crane set off, and that question now sits with the investigators.