Fireworks factory explosion: 'They endangered people's lives,' says killed worker's brother

Photo: AA

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"What happened has happened to our lives, brother. He had three children. The irresponsible ambition of making money played with people's lives," says Murat Tepeçınar, who lost his brother Sebahattin Tepeçınar in the explosion at a fireworks factory on June 3.

Six workers have died and 126 have been wounded in what was the seventh explosion in 13 years at the factory. 

Tepeçınar says that his brother had been working at the same factory for 10 years and talking about their "very dangerous" working conditions. There was "intense work" at the factory before the explosion, he says.

Tepeçınar says his brother had problems in his ears after one explosion and another explosion had occurred on his off day.

"I was doing construction at another factory, five or six kilometers from where the explosion occurred. I thought the blast was where I worked. A few minutes passed, a friend from the village called me and said the explosion happened in the fireworks factory.

"I called my brother, could not reach him. I immediately went to the factory, but they didn't allow me upstairs. In the forest, there were those who escaped the explosion. So I started looking for my brother, I asked those who escaped. They said, 'Sabahattin has survived, but we do not know if he went down or not, we do not know.' They made me feel relieved. Everyone I saw said the same thing.

"But we could never find my brother. We waited, searched, looked at the hospital lists, asked the authorities, and did not get any information. Nobody gave us exact information.

"We learned later that my brother came in after the blast. He tried to bring out the injured, the carriable ones. He brought five or six people. But he entered to bring out our fellow villager Havva, another explosion occurred. Neither could get out of that explosion."

"They tried to run away with computers"

Tepeçınar says he believes the announced death toll was correct: "The information the authorities and hospitals give is the same. This is a small place anyway. Everyone knows one another. If there was a missing one, if it was hidden, it would be heard, known."

He adds that ensuring the security of workers and taking measures to reduce the risk of an accident are not up to the workers but to managers.

"This explosion is the mistake of the managers. As a matter of fact, they caught the son of Yaşar Coşkun the son of the owner of the factory, while trying to run away with computers.

After his elder brother Sadettin, the twin of Sabahattin, managed to go upstairs, he saw the attempt to remove computers and documents, which were later delivered to the gendarmerie, says Tepeçınar.

Footage allegedly showing factory owner's relatives trying to remove computers:

"Managers could have taken measures"

"I asked the workers how the incident happened. Everyone I talked to said that they have piled up the materials they produced in the place they work. They continued to produce while the material was accumulating.

"This means that there was an overload of powder in the workplace. Therefore, the accumulated material is what caused the explosion to be much heavier."

Had the managers of the company sent the products to depots or created a storage yard, the explosion wouldn't have occurred, says Tepeçınar.

"The executives did not take steps even though they knew that. They endangered people's lives. What happened, in the end, happened to our lives.

"Previously, a woman burned in the same place, she suddenly caught fire. If you don't take measures for that, you commit homicide. This is a homicide. I'm not charging somebody with something. Are the managers or the owners of the factory? Who is responsible for that?

"They didn't offer condolences"

After the explosion, the Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD) visited Hendek and organized a dinner with its members. After reactions on social media, it removed the post on the dinner and stated that it was organized to think about "what could be done for our worker brothers."

"I don't know who or what they are. Their own world, one lives. They reassured one another. That doesn't concern me. What concerns me is that they didn't even come for condolence. They were impudent, immodest," Tepeçınar says. "They didn't attend funerals. We are not their enemies."

"What happened happened to our lives, brother. He had three children. The irresponsible ambition of making money played with people's life. They might not have done this on purpose. I'm not charging anyone. We are not the ones who will charge, put on trial. But it could me more careful, these lives wouldn't have been lost." (HA/VK)