On Saturday morning, November 8, an explosion and fire occurred at a perfume filling depot belonging to the Ravive Cosmetics company in the Dilovası district of Kocaeli, an industrial city neighbouring Istanbul. Six workers, four women and two children, were burned alive.
The incident sparked outrage as it was revealed that the workshop, where filling and packaging were carried out, lacked basic safety measures; that workers, mostly women, were employed without insurance for poverty-level wages; that child labor was being exploited; and that the building, whose licensing status remains unclear, had neither a fire escape nor proper safety equipment. Complaints reportedly submitted to CIMER (Presidency’s Communication Center) were ignored, and the facility was never inspected. Emine Bulut, the sister of 56-year-old Şengül Yılmaz, and her husband Salih Yılmaz spoke to ANF about the tragedy that claimed her life.
It was just as it seemed, a cursed place!
Upon hearing the news of her sister Şengül Yılmaz’s death in the factory fire, Emine Bulut immediately travelled from Sakarya to Dilovası. Having lost her brother to a heart attack just 27 days earlier, she was now mourning the death of a second sibling. Bulut said: “And now, the painful news of my sister has come. The perfume workshop where she was burned alive was a place where this tragedy could clearly be seen coming. It was just as it seemed, a cursed place. There was no insurance, no work safety. Forget fire equipment, there wasn’t even a table to eat at or a place for tea. I worked there for a month last year. The owner, Kurtuluş Oransal, always cut our pay. He’d say, ‘The first two days are a trial,’ and then make up excuses like, ‘You didn’t come on Sunday,’ to deduct more money. In the end, I was left with only about 11,000 TL. When I asked, ‘Is that all?’ he said, ‘Yes, that’s all.’ So I told him, ‘Then you work for that amount.’”
Şengül couldn’t ignore the girls’ screams
Emine Bulut said that her sister Şengül had worked at the workshop for three years. Bulut said, “My sister was earning 950 TL a month, it was like charity money. But she would get restless if she didn’t work. She wanted to earn some pocket money and spend time with her friends, Hanım Gülek and Ayten Aras, at the workshop. Almost everyone there worked temporarily from time to time to make a bit of extra money. On the day of the fire, she could have survived. Her friend Ayten, who escaped the massacre, told me, ‘When I looked back, Şengül was walking behind me. A little later, I realized she was gone.’ I think my sister must have heard the screams of the girls who were still inside and couldn’t bear it. She went back in. The girls working there were like her own children.”
There was neither a fire escape nor an emergency exit!
Emine Bulut emphasized that it was already difficult to leave the workshop in any kind of emergency. She said there was only a narrow exit beside the large warehouse door where materials were delivered, barely wide enough for one person to pass through.
Bulut also said: “That door was extremely heavy and could only be opened by pushing it hard. When I worked there, I once tried to go out through that door, but it was so heavy that I could barely open it. It was only opened when materials arrived or when it was too hot in the summer; otherwise, it was always closed. Most of the time, we could hardly breathe inside. There was no ventilation, no fire escape, no emergency exit. Materials like barrel-type chemical containers were brought in from outside, poured into filling machines, then transferred into bottles and packed. There were many stages, some workers filled the bottles, others attached caps, some put on labels, and others packed them. None of the workers were insured; only a woman supervisor named Gülhan had insurance. When the fire broke out, she ran away, leaving the workers behind. But when workers wanted to speak to the owner, she would shout, ‘No, Mr. Kurtuluş won’t see you, you can’t go.’ And that same owner ran away on the day of the fire with a suitcase full of the workers’ unpaid wages. He always paid them in cash and when he saw the fire, he fled with their money.”
Forced to work under threats for a month without rest
Crying as she spoke, Emine Bulut said that she last saw her sister Şengül 27 days earlier at their brother’s funeral, adding that she was now the only one left from her family. Bulut said her sister had a pregnant daughter who lived next to the workshop: “My sister would go to work and then help her pregnant daughter. Normally, Şengül worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but for the past month, she had been working full shifts seven days a week. My sister and the other workers who lost their lives had worked nonstop for an entire month, from 8 in the morning until 8 at night, without rest. The owner, Kurtuluş Oransal, forced them to work overtime under threat of being fired. He told them, ‘Either you stay for overtime, or don’t bother coming tomorrow.’ He didn’t pay them for the extra hours, nor did he provide any meals, he pocketed all the money himself. Workers brought pieces of bread, cheese, and olives from home. They had to eat on the floor because the owner wouldn’t even provide a table. Meanwhile, he sat upstairs at his desk, eating kebabs, pita, and döner. The workers, on the other hand, were hungry and exhausted. They died that way, hungry and worn out.”
Municipal officers took boxes of perfume instead of inspecting
Emine Bulut said that the workshop, where uninsured workers were employed, and no safety measures were taken, was never properly inspected. She recalled one occasion when two municipal officers from the Dilovası Municipality came to the workplace, claiming to conduct an inspection, but instead left carrying boxes of perfume prepared by the workers. Bulut said, “On a day when an inspection was supposed to take place, the owner panicked because he needed to show insured workers. He asked for my ID in a rush to register me for insurance. I told him I was already retired and refused. I told him to insure my sister, who had 1,008 days left until retirement, or the other workers, but he never did. He kept deceiving them. Whenever there was going to be an inspection, he would send us outside, leaving only a few workers inside. Once the inspectors were gone, he would call us back to continue working.”
Whoever is responsible for this murder must be punished!
Emine Bulut said that her sister’s death was a murder committed in plain sight and criticized the Ministry of Labour and Social Security saying, “This cannot be solved by putting on a tie.” Bulut demanded that everyone responsible for the workplace tragedy be held accountable: “There are two accounts of how the fire started: one says an electrical short circuit, the other says a cigarette. Whatever happened, let it come to light. Whoever turned a blind eye to this atrocity, whoever did wrong here, whoever has a hand in this crime, let them all receive their punishment. I am not after money; I want justice for my sister, for my life, for my heart.” Bulut also reacted strongly to social media users who shared her sister’s voice recordings without consent and said, “Take those audio recordings down from social media. It hurts me deeply. If they are to be shared, they should be submitted to the court instead.”
All that remained was her small lunch bag
Salih Yılmaz, the husband of Şengül Yılmaz, said he had tried many times to convince his wife not to work at the workshop. He explained that whenever his wife stayed for overtime, he would go there and argue with the owner. Yılmaz said, “I often clashed with the owner, Kurtuluş Oransal, so he never liked me. He would even tell my wife, ‘That sailor is no good, where did you find this sailor?’ I didn’t like him either. Sometimes it would be nine in the evening and my wife would still be working, so I’d go and argue with him. My wife often complained about the working conditions, so I kept telling her to quit. I’ll never forget, since they weren’t given any meals at work, she used to pack a bag every morning with bread, olives, and cheese. I used to tease her, saying, ‘There goes the poor woman again.’ Now, all that’s left of her is that bag.”