A blast at the Habas Demir Celik iron and steel plant in Aliaga, Izmir province, killed 16 workers when a ceiling crane snapped and fell into an arc furnace during molten steel casting around noon on 9 November. Ten people remain trapped under rubble, while 13 were injured and two are in serious condition, with casualties distributed across several regional hospitals. The Turkish government has opened an investigation, putting overhead crane integrity, furnace-area lifting operations and maintenance regimes under immediate scrutiny for heavy steel plants.

Codelco has halted processing at its Andina copper division after an obstruction in the tailings transport system near the Rápido RV4 sector caused a partial tailings release that may have entered the Blanco River within the Río Blanco canyon, upstream of the Aconcagua River basin. Emergency actions include shutting the concentrator, suspending tailings transport, diverting flows to the Piuquenitos reservoir, and continuous river sampling, while water utility Esval has closed its Aconcagua surface intake and switched to underground sources for Los Andes. The incident coincides with disclosure of 42,100 tonnes of previously inflated copper output and a 17,000‑tonne inventory reporting discrepancy, intensifying regulatory and community scrutiny of tailings and water-risk management at Andina.

Wildfires could damage or destroy between 133,000 and 449,000 structures across the US from 2024 to 2060 if current development patterns and limited adaptation persist, according to a new peer‑reviewed risk assessment. The projected losses nearly triple current estimates, driven by continued expansion of housing into the wildland–urban interface and inadequate fire‑resilient design. For civil and geotechnical engineers, this signals rising demand for fire‑hardening of infrastructure, updated land‑use planning, and performance‑based codes for foundations, retaining systems and utilities in high‑risk corridors.