On the afternoon of October 25, an explosion ripped through a factory in the massive metals complex at Morowali, a remote region in eastern Indonesia that has in recent years become the centre for the production of nickel, a metal critical to steelmaking and electric vehicle batteries.
The blast — at a steel plant owned by a unit of Chinese metals giant Tsingshan Holding Group — sparked a fire and trapped a crane operator called Gunawan. “There’s someone inside,” screamed a colleague, according to videos of the incident seen by the Financial Times.
Some workers prayed while others sobbed as plumes of thick black smoke filled the plant and firefighters tried to douse the fire. Gunawan died later that day. Another worker was injured.