Pietro Maria Fiori, a 35-year-old from Milan, was supposed to spend a couple of weeks volunteering with shepherds who, during the summer, bring their animals from the valley floor to graze at the nearly 2,000-meter-high Buscagna Alp, in the upper Devero Valley, in the far north of Piedmont, a stone's throw from the Swiss border. In the mountains of Baceno (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola) , he died from carbon monoxide poisoning that erupted last night in the cabin where he was staying with five other people. The others, four men and a woman, were poisoned.
The accident occurred around midnight:30 a.m. in a cabin owned by the Municipality of Baceno, managed by the Alpe Veglia and Alpe Devero Natural Park, and rented to the Francesco Biondo farm in Masera (VCO). The alarm was raised by one of the cabin's occupants, likely already in a state of confusion due to gas poisoning. Despite difficulties communicating what was happening and the exact location of the emergency, the emergency response team was activated immediately. Firefighters, mountain rescuers, the Guardia di Finanza mountain rescue team, and paramedics from 118, along with two helicopters from Turin and Como, arrived at the scene, an isolated area reachable in about an hour's walk from Alpe Devero.
The victim, Pietro Maria Fiori, had arrived in the Devero Valley through the Milanese social cooperative Eliante as part of the Pasturs project, a network born in the Bergamo Orobie Alps and then spread to the Aosta Valley, Trentino, Piedmont, Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise regions. The network brings together farmers and volunteers between the ages of 18 and 45 who are willing to spend a few weeks on mountain pastures to help the herdsmen with their work. The project aims to improve the coexistence between livestock farming and large predators like wolves and bears. Fiori, a product designer by profession, had developed a passion for running for several months and found the mountains a way to challenge himself. He recently shared his passion on his LinkedIn profile: "What started out as a bit of a joke is becoming something much bigger," he wrote in July, adding that he wanted to tackle "climbs, hard work, and miles immersed in the mountains." In another post, he described an experience in a tent, surrounded by nature and friends, confiding that those were "the adventures I love, the ones that remind you that it doesn't take much to be happy." With him, in the cabin on Alpe Buscagna where his volunteer experience turned tragic, were the farm owner, his father, two employees, and a 34-year-old woman.
Their conditions improved over the hours. There were particular concerns for the woman, who wasn't there as a volunteer, but because of her relationship with the victim. Transported to Niguarda Hospital in Milan in critical condition, she awoke in the afternoon: "She's regained consciousness, which gives us some relief," said Pierleonardo Zaccheo, president of the Ossola Protected Areas Authority. Thoughts for the victim and support and sympathy for the injured also came from the VCO Livestock Protection Committee, which, through its president Gesine Otten, assured "maximum support for the farm involved, including to continue caring for the livestock and processing the milk." The Domodossola financial police's mountain rescue team is investigating the cause of the accident, having seized a boiler suspected of causing the carbon monoxide leak. The devices, Zaccheo assures, "are new, recently installed by a specialized company."
(Unioneonline)
