“Keep windows closed.” Off to air monitoring

These are nightmare hours for those who live in Colli Aniene, Casal Bruciato, Collatino, Villa Gordiani, Tor Sapienza, Tor Cervara and the surrounding areas. There, since Thursday afternoon, the air has been unbreathable. The fault of yet another fire in Rome’s giant landfill, the largest in Europe, on Via Collatina Vecchia.

After the fire broke out due to causes being examined by the firefighters, who will still work today to put out the last fires that burned even during the night, the Municipality of Rome has made known some recommendations for citizens: “Do not stop near the area affected by the fire, keep the windows closed in case of persistent and smelly fumes and do not use external air conditioners at the moment”.

Furthermore, Campidolgio further explained, in the affected area, as a precaution, “electricity, gas and water interruptions and traffic slowdowns” are possible. While waiting to understand the reason for the new fire, air monitoring has been activated by Arpa Lazio, for the positioning of a control unit for monitoring air quality with the detection of any polluting substances.

Previous

The problem of the landfill in Via Collatina Vecchia is old. Last year, in March, another huge fire kept rescuers busy for hours. Same scene in 2019. Before those flames, in the previous months, an illegal settlement had been cleared out and the area had been completely abandoned with sheet metal and other materials. Today the situation does not appear dissimilar.

The story of the largest illegal landfill in Europe

The cleanup is scheduled

Due to repeated illegal spills of various types of materials, over time, that area has transformed into a real illegal landfill, the largest in Europe. Municipality and IV municipality had identified the funds, by the waste department of Roma Capitale, necessary for a reclamation intervention by Ama which had already been scheduled.

Alfonsi and Umberti on site

The councilor for the environment and waste cycle of Rome Capital, Sabrina Alfonsi, went to the site on Thursday afternoon together with the president of the IV municipality, Massimiliano Umberti to follow the extinguishing operations. “Another episode of waste fire in this area, after the sequence of three similar events which occurred between August and October last year in a privately owned area in Via di Ponte Mammolo, where we carried out a major clean-up operation with a expenditure of over 400 thousand euros”, commented al Alfonsi.

“There is regret, because the waste removal operation had already been planned for some time and would have been carried out in a few weeks. It is now a question of speeding up the removal procedure, as soon as the fire is put out and the area safety, burnt waste and waste that may have escaped the flames. It is also necessary to start a very serious reflection on how to safeguard the reclaimed areas from the recurrence of illegal dumping, otherwise the risk is to frustrate interventions which are in any case very costly for the coffers. public”, concluded the councilor.

The video of the firefighters’ intervention