FRANCAVILLA. A large fire broke out last night in an area of the Patricelli company in Francavilla, on the national road, near Piazza Sant’Alfonso. The alarm went off shortly after 5 in the morning, when within a few minutes, high flames rose up, with a dense column of black smoke visible from kilometers away. The firefighters of Chieti and those of Pescara arrived on site, as well as the carabinieri from the operational and mobile radio unit of Chieti and colleagues from the Francavilla station.
Based on an initial reconstruction, the fire appears to have started from the offices of the building material manufacturing company, which are located at the back, then enveloping one of the storage centers where there was iron. An area of approximately 130 square meters caught fire, inside which there was no one at the time of the fire, as was the rest of the company. It took firefighters just over an hour to put out the flames, followed by safety operations. The most accredited hypothesis is that of a short circuit, both because at that point there were active electrical systems, such as the one used to power the lighting system, vending machines and other electronic devices, and because the investigations carried out so far have not found elements that might suggest a malicious cause. No ignition, no sign of forced entry: nothing that could lead us to imagine someone’s hand behind the fire. At least for now. Of course, the investigations are not finished and now we will try to get further answers also from the internal video surveillance images.
The fire, in addition to destroying the area involved, had further repercussions, such as the closure of three schools in the area due to the air being made unbreathable, especially during the early hours of the morning.
Yesterday morning the mayor Luisa Russo – who then also went to the site for an inspection – ordered a stop to lessons in the Alento nursery school, the branch of the Masci secondary school and the other Costanza D’Avalos school, leaving the 403 pupils of the three schools at home . At the same time, the mayor also invited the inhabitants of neighboring houses to keep their windows closed, while the intervention of the ARTA was requested to monitor the air quality. Monitoring which already yesterday afternoon gave a first negative result, as explained by Mayor Russo: «I received a certified e-mail from Arta which notes that there have never been any today (yesterday, ndc) anomalous or dangerous values”. However, the order for the closure of schools, unless otherwise indicated, was effective only for yesterday. Today is Saturday and the institutes remain closed as scheduled, while the regular resumption of lessons is expected on Monday.
It is still difficult to estimate the damage caused by the flames, but at least there were no consequences for people, also thanks to the timely intervention of the firefighters: considering the size of the fire, the damage could have been much more serious.
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