Casteldaccia – Extremely serious accident at work in Casteldaccia. Five workers died due to fumes they breathed this morning in Via Nazionale while they were carrying out some work inside a wastewater lifting tank located near a wine cellar. A sixth worker was extracted by the firefighters, already unconscious, and taken by helicopter to the Polyclinic where he arrived intubated and in critical condition. However, a seventh worker was uninjured and treated on site by paramedics.
They died one after the other by lowering themselves into a manhole of the sewage system. This is the first reconstruction of the workplace massacre. After the first worker remained underground without coming out, the others lowered themselves to understand what was happening. The seventh member of the team, not seeing his colleagues come out, raised the alarm. Four victims are workers from a company in Partinico, among them the owner of the company appears; the fifth is a temporary worker.
Some relatives of the five dead workers arrived at the site of the workplace tragedy.
“If all the necessary precautions had been taken, all of this would not have happened.” This was said by the provincial commander of the Palermo fire brigade Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra regarding the workplace accident in Casteldaccia which cost the lives of five workers. Bentivoglio confirmed that the victims were killed by hydrogen sulphide fumes and ruled out that there was a collapse inside the sewers. “In the tank the concentration of hydrogen sulphide, a gas that forms from the fermentation of sewage, was 10 times higher than the maximum limits”, added Bentivoglio who explained that the alarm, given at 1.48pm to the single emergency number, was It was reported to 118 and then to the firefighters who in a quarter of an hour sent four teams to the scene, one of which was volunteers. “Our staff intervened immediately – explained the commander – and first recovered the victims who were in the tank and then the three who were lying on the slab”
These are the names of the five victims of the workplace massacre which took place in Casteldaccia: Epifanio Alsazia, 71 years old, the co-owner of the Quadrifoglio company; Giuseppe Miraglia, 47 years old, Roberto Raneri, 51 years old, Ignazio Giordano, 57 years old and Giuseppe La Barbera.
Tomorrow a 4-hour and 8-hour general strike by builders in the province of Palermo. This was announced by Piero Ceraulo, secretary of the construction workers of the CGIL of Palermo who together with other union leaders is in Casteldaccia where 5 workers died. A demonstration is planned in front of the Prefecture at 9am.
The 4-hour general strike, at the beginning of the shift, was proclaimed by the provincial secretariats of CGIL, CISL and UIL, and by the chemical, water and energy sector acronyms Filctem Cgil, Femca Cisl and Uiltec Uil.
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, visiting New York, expressed his condolences for the serious tragedy. “I hope that full light will be shed on the dynamics of the accident. But yet another unacceptable massacre at work – just a few days before May 1st – must forcefully reiterate the need for a common commitment which must concern social forces, entrepreneurs and the relevant institutions”.
“The news of the workers involved in the tragic accident that occurred in Casteldaccia, in the Palermo area, is shocking. My deep condolences to the families of the victims, together with the feeling of closeness towards the worker who is currently in the intensive care unit at the Policlinico hospital in Palermo. Let full light be shed on this tragedy.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says so.
