20 dead, 117 injured in fire at factory

At least 20 people were killed and 117 were injured when at least one explosion ripped through a building in Istanbul’s Davutpasa district that housed an illegal fireworks factory, the city governor’s office reported.

“There was a furnace near where the [fireworks] were stored. There is the issue of that furnace exploding,” state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Gov. Muammer Guler as saying. A second furnace on another floor might have exploded during the subsequent blaze, he said. Several of those killed were bystanders in the street watching the fire.