A suspected hazardous materials leak was reported Monday morning at Intel's semiconductor plant in Kiryat Gat, southern Israel, less than a week after a deadly explosion at the same facility killed two workers and seriously injured a third. Employees said they had been instructed to shelter inside the building.
The latest alert comes just five days after an explosion at the plant on Wednesday killed Intel employees Ilya Chechulin and Yakir Kosashvili. A third employee, a man in his 20s, was hospitalized in serious condition in the internal medicine intensive care unit at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where he was sedated and placed on a ventilator.
The scene of last week's deadly explosion at Intel's Kiryat Gat plant
(Photo: Israel Fire and Rescue Services)
According to Israel Fire and Rescue Services, preliminary findings suggest the fatal explosion was caused by a technical failure involving the neck of a tank containing eight tons of nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), a hazardous gas used in semiconductor manufacturing.
Authorities described the accident as highly unusual and said it remained unclear whether the suspected failure resulted from wear and tear or could have been prevented.
Paramedics who responded to last week's explosion described a harrowing scene involving three workers who suffered severe burns. Two were found without a pulse or signs of breathing and required extensive resuscitation, including chest compressions, assisted ventilation and defibrillator shocks.
"After their pulses returned, we continued providing medical treatment, including sedation and ventilation," the paramedics said. All three were evacuated to hospital in serious condition, but two later died from their injuries.
The cause of Monday's suspected hazardous materials leak has not yet been established, and it remains unclear whether any dangerous substances were released.