This morning there was also Giovanni, an external worker of Sardinian origins who takes care of tank maintenance, inside the Eni area of Calenzano where a gigantic explosion occurred : "With three colleagues we were inside a tank doing maintenance, we heard a violent explosion followed by the sound of an alarm - he said -. Luckily we are safe. The only thought was to run away and take cover, we immediately left the site and never returned. We didn't even realize".
The victims and the missing
Two bodies have been found so far, dozens are injured, while three other men, untraceable, are most likely still among the rubble of what remains of that explosion . The first victim to be identified is Vincenzo Martinelli, 51, resident in Prato and originally from Naples: he had two daughters and was a tanker truck driver. Perhaps the other victim, sixty years old, was instead from Bientina, a town in the Pisa area. Like them, other colleagues on their truck were refueling in the morning to leave and start the day. This is why Calenzano risks being remembered as the truckers' massacre.
The list also includes other truck drivers from half of Italy, from Catania to Novara, up to Matera and they are between forty-five and sixty-two years old. After all, their vehicles were parked on site at the time of the explosion in the plant, which carries out the reception, storage and shipping of gasoline, diesel and oil. Products that arrive via two pipelines connected to the Eni refinery in Livorno, to then be stored in cylindrical atmospheric tanks awaiting shipment to the loading shelters of the tankers. And right in that same place the firefighters, in these hours, are moving the rubble with a bulldozer, moving the debris of the very strong explosion with the utmost attention, looking for other bodies.
Councilor Monni
The roar and then the strong shock wave shook the entire area and were clearly felt for kilometers away, even in Florence and the neighboring municipalities of Sesto Fiorentino and Campi Bisenzio, but also in the more distant Scandicci. Then the high column of dense smoke visible from a very long distance. About fifteen companies near the area of the accident were closed as a precaution, explained the regional councilor for Civil Protection Monia Monni, "evaluations are underway to understand if it is possible to return to work in those places", due to the damage recorded.
"I saw an impressive scene, there is total destruction - says the mayor of Calenzano Giuseppe Carovani -. I imagine who was working there and was near or under the charging infrastructure, that must have looked like hell. The situation is indescribable". Also at the site of the accident was the president of the Region Eugenio Giani , who immediately followed the evolution of the situation. "The firefighters did an impressive job, avoiding further consequences. The flames were put out, avoiding any contact with the fuel depots, otherwise the outcome would have been even more dramatic".
(Unioneonline/D)