Intel Kiryat Gat blast: one worker critical, two seriously hurt

Update, 14 October, 17:07 Israel time

One of the three injured workers is now in critical condition. N12 reported that Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba said one of the wounded was critical and the other two serious, with all three suffering widespread burns of varying severity. Ynet also reported that one of the injured was in critical condition.

The fire is out. The mayor of Kiryat Gat told Ynet that the blaze at the factory had been extinguished and that the public was not in danger. News.co.il reported that there was no risk of a hazardous materials leak, and that the two workers who were resuscitated had regained a heartbeat.

On the cause, Ynet reported that the working suspicion is a gas cylinder that blew up while a truck was being unloaded. No official body has confirmed this.

The Times of Israel reported that there were no apparent suspicions of an attack or any other hostile act.

The story as first reported

Three workers were seriously injured on Wednesday when an explosion and fire struck the Intel factory in the Rabin industrial park in Kiryat Gat, a city in southern Israel. Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical service, said its Lachish region dispatch centre received the call on its 101 emergency line at 14:11, reporting three people burned while at work.

Medics later moved all three to Soroka Medical Center. According to a follow-up statement from the service, a man of about 50 and a man of about 30 both required resuscitation and were in serious, unstable condition, sedated and on ventilators, with burns. A third man, aged 26, was described as seriously hurt but stable, with burns to his upper body. The Israel Fire and Rescue Service said the gas nitrogen trifluoride was involved in the incident.

How the casualty picture changed

Early reports and later ones differ on the workers' condition, and the difference reflects how the day unfolded rather than a settled dispute. Magen David Adom's first update said all three were conscious when treated at the scene. Its later statement said two had undergone resuscitation. The Times of Israel, citing the service, reported that medics found those two men without a pulse and not breathing, and revived them with CPR and electric shocks. The Israeli broadcaster N12 reported that two of the wounded were unconscious.

What is known about the cause

The reports do not agree on exactly what exploded. Police said a gas cylinder appeared to have blown up, and that officers were checking for a possible hazardous materials leak. The news site Ynet also pointed to a suspected gas cylinder. N12 reported a separate line of inquiry: whether a tanker transporting gas had exploded at the entrance to the plant. N12 said the circumstances were under examination, and no report gives a confirmed cause.

The gas involved

Nitrogen trifluoride is a toxic gas that does not burn on its own but acts as an oxidiser, meaning it can feed combustion, according to the Fire and Rescue Service as reported by The Times of Israel and N12. The service said specialist hazardous materials teams were working out what role the substance played. Ynet reported that the gas leaked into the air. The fire service's own wording, as quoted, was more cautious, saying only that the incident involved the gas and that its involvement was being assessed.

The emergency response

Ynet reported that eight firefighting and rescue teams were deployed. Firefighters later said they had brought the flames under control and were working to stop the fire spreading. N12 reported that the area was cordoned off within a radius of half a kilometre. The mayor of Kiryat Gat urged people to keep away from the city's industrial zone, according to Ynet, and the municipality issued a similar message to residents.

Israel Hayom reported that the incident prompted an urgent helicopter evacuation. The other reports describe the wounded being taken to Soroka without specifying how. Soroka is in Beersheba, the main city of Israel's south.

Netanyahu in the city

The explosion happened while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was touring Kiryat Gat, according to News.co.il and The Times of Israel. Neither report links his visit to the incident at the factory.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports identifies the injured workers or says whether they were Intel employees or contractors. None gives a confirmed cause, and the accounts of a gas cylinder and a gas tanker have not been reconciled. The reports do not state how much nitrogen trifluoride was released, whether it posed a risk to anyone beyond the cordon, or how long the area would stay closed. There is no statement from Intel in the material, and nothing on whether production at the plant was affected.