Three men from the Arab village Yafia were killed Tuesday and ten others suffered injuries in varying degrees of severity because of a gas leak near the Haifa petrochemical and refining complex. Two of the victims were cousins.
Many friends and relatives of the men who were killed rioted and attacked Jews at the Rambam Hospital emergency room, shouting that “the Jews” were to blame for the deaths of their loved ones. Other relatives of the men who were killed called on the rioters to end the violence and go home.
The men who were killed were part of a privately owned maintenance crew that was attempting to seal a leak in the gas line, which contained the highly poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas. The circumstances of the accident are under investigation.
Initial reports said that one of the workers may have removed his protective mask. He inhaled the poison gas and became ill. Three of his co-workers – all of whom are from the same village – tried to help him but apparently also removed their masks for unknown reasons. They then fell ill too.
One possibility being looked into is that the oxygen that was supposed to be flowing into the workers' masks had stopped flowing for some reason, forcing the workers to remove their masks.
Seven other workers were injured, two of them seriously. All of them were taken to Rambam, Carmel and Bnei Tzion medical centers. Three paramedics were lightly hurt.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said that the accident was the result of a malfunction in the gas system. “There was no explosion and there was no danger to the residents. Once the leak was discovered, steam was pumped through the pipe and the leak stopped.”