A killer gas, hydrogen sulfide, is at the basis of yet another workplace tragedy that occurred yesterday in Sicily in Casteldaccia, near Palermo. Five workers lost their lives during maintenance work on a sewerage lifting system on state road 113, work commissioned by Amap (Palermo’s municipal company) and which was taking place near the Duca di Salparuta winery. The firefighters, the police and ambulances intervened on the spot, but there was nothing that could be done for the five workers, who got out without gas masks.
What happened – There were nine people in total engaged in maintenance work on behalf of the company Quadrifoglio Srl. After lifting a manhole along the state road that connects Casteldaccia to Palermo, a road just about ten meters wide with houses on both sides, three workers lowered themselves into the sewer room, about 5 meters deep. Immediately after taking the first steps, with the pump still in their hands, the three felt ill and lost consciousness. Not hearing them, two other colleagues, still climbing down the manhole, reached the concrete attic to understand what was happening, but they too were trapped: the hydrogen sulphide, ten times above the permitted limit, immediately stunned them. A sixth worker who was outside rushed to help them but immediately after inhaling the killer gas he managed to get back to the surface, saving himself, even though his condition is serious, and he is hospitalized at the Palermo Polyclinic.
Who are the five victims – These are the names of the five victims of the workplace massacre which took place in Casteldaccia: Epifanio Alsazia, 71 years old, co-owner of the Quadrifoglio group company, was from Partinico (Palermo) as was Ignazio Giordano, 57 years old; Giuseppe Miraglia, 47 years old, was originally from San Cipirello (Palermo), while Roberto Raneri, 51 years old, was from Alcamo; Giuseppe La Barbera, 28 years old from Palerrmo, temporary worker at Amap.
Four workers survived – A worker from the Quadrifoglio group company is hospitalized in intensive care at the Palermo Polyclinic: he is Domenico Viola, aged 62, from Partinico. His condition is very serious. The other three are Giovanni D’Aleo, Giuseppe Scavuzzo, 39 years old and Paolo Sciortino, 35 years old. The first was taken to the emergency room of the Policlinico hospital, the other two to the emergency room of Termini Imerese. Their conditions do not cause concern.
Who was Giuseppe La Barbera the Younger – The words full of pain are shared on social media and accompany photos of a boy who loved being in company, tied to his family. He was originally from the Albergheria district where the popular Ballarò market is located. Giuseppe got married in May 2019 and in a few days he would have celebrated 5 years of marriage. He leaves behind his young wife and two small children. Many in the neighborhood know him and remember him because his family sells gas cylinders and most of the homes in the neighborhood do not have methane and use the gas in metal containers which is brought home. Until a few years ago it was Giuseppe himself who brought the cylinders to those who requested them. For years the young man had got by as best he could with the most disparate jobs – he had even sold drinks – to help his family. Then he found work in a company and was a temporary worker for Amap.
The memory of friends and colleagues – Those who knew Giuseppe La Barbera are in disbelief and in shock. «My friend I still can’t believe it – it’s another message on the Facebook wall – you broke my heart because the love and the friendship and above all the brotherhood that we had since we were children… all our chats that we did when we were together… I still don’t believe all this. It seems like a dream to me, but I promise you that I will never forget you because for me you were not just a friend but a brother. Have a safe trip my friend, you will always be in my heart, rest in peace.” There are also the words of a colleague: «Peppino there are no words, just a lot of anger and sadness. I remember the happiness on our faces the day we went to sign the employment contract and now what remains? Life is unfair! Have a safe trip dear colleague, I will never forget you.”
The reactions to the tragedy, from Mattarella to Meloni to Schifani – The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, from New York, hopes “that full light will be shed on the dynamics of the accident”. “But yet another unacceptable massacre at work – says Mattarella – must forcefully reiterate the need for a common commitment which must concern social forces, entrepreneurs and the relevant institutions”. “My deep condolences to the families of the victims, together with 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”, writes Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in X.
The victims did not have masks – The firefighters, who intervened with three teams plus some volunteers after the 112 call arrived at 1.48pm, recovered the five bodies of the workers with the help of the diving team who immersed themselves in the slime of the tank, of around 80 centimeters. “There are investigations underway, I can only say that the workers did not have protective masks and when we recovered them they had already died despite the attempts of the health personnel to resuscitate them”, the provincial commander of the Palermo fire brigade told reporters , Girolamo Bentivoglio Flanders.
The investigations of the Termini Imerese prosecutor’s office – After reaching the site of the massacre, Ambrogio Cartosio, head of the Termini Imerese Prosecutor’s Office, opened an investigation entrusting the investigations to the police who questioned the director of works and the safety manager of Amap, the contracting company. The investigators are acquiring other elements at the Quadrifoglio headquarters in Partinico and are hearing several witnesses. According to an initial reconstruction, the workers – employees partly of a private company, the Quadrifoglio group srl of Partinico, and partly of Amap – would have entered a tank located in via Nazionale, near a winery, from which, however, they only emerged with the intervention of fire brigade divers. What happened in that tank is currently unclear. There are numerous questions that the investigations will have to answer, including – for example – whether the workers were equipped with the appropriate safety devices for the intervention to be carried out.
The reconstruction of Amap – “The maintenance work – according to what Amap reconstructs – was prepared after repeated reports in recent days about anomalies in the sewerage network, in the section between the intersection with Via della Rotonda and the lifting station called ‘Vini Corvo’. For their execution, Amap commissioned the Quadrifoglio group company (from Partinico, ed.) for every verification activity of the aforementioned sewerage section. The works, which involved raising the wells and unblocking them with the aid of a vacuum truck, began on. on April 29th and have continued until today”.
Duca di Salaparuta denies any involvement in the accident – “We are dismayed by the seriousness of the accident and we want to express closeness and affection to the families of the workers who were involved in the tragic event outside our cellars”. The Director Roberto Magnisi of Duca di Salaparuta thus wanted to deny any connection to this news. Duca di Salaparuta and Vini Corvo are completely unrelated to what happened yesterday early afternoon.
379 deaths in Italy since the beginning of the year. 29 in Sicily – “With yesterday’s workplace accident in Sicily we reach 379 deaths in our country since the beginning of the year, in practice in just 127 days. These are different data from those of Inail which waited until May 1st to release the data of deaths in the first quarter of 2024 counting 191 victims, down 2.6% compared to 2023. Yet we had 260 deaths with an increase of 3% in one year”. So at Adnkronos/Labitalia is Piero Santonastaso, creator and curator of ‘Work-related deaths’, a project started on Facebook and in which it talks about, and accounts for, the phenomenon of accidents at work beyond the official data. “We are seeing – he underlines – a big difference in numbers, this is because Inail uses very narrow criteria, works on complaints, on which the ax of bureaucracy always hangs and also does not consider many categories of workers. As said several times, it is time that the Italy must overhaul the entire certification system, not before having adopted legislation capable of, if not nipping at, reducing the phenomenon of workplace homicides to a minimum. There is a lack of will to intervene in the organization of work. The government has introduced the points-based license but only in construction, cutting out all other sectors.” “With today’s deaths – he points out – in Sicily we reach 29 deaths since the beginning of the year, 21 right in the workplace and 8 while traveling. In the terrible Italian ranking Sicily thus rises to fifth place. In first place there is “Lombardy has been fixed and stable for years, followed by Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and now Sicily”.
CGIL CISL AND UIL today 4-hour strike and sit-in – “We are shocked, we feel a deep sense of pain and defeat every time these very serious episodes happen, and today the entire system that should deal with the prevention and protection of workers’ health is defeated. The world of work in Palermo today pays a very high and dear price in the battle for safety at work. We cannot believe that another five workers will not return home this evening, this terrible tragedy leaves us dismayed.” This was stated by the general secretaries of CGIL and CISL Palermo, Mario Ridulfo, Leonardo La Piana and for the Uil Sicilia secretariat Ignazio Baudo, who thus announced the first reaction of the confederal unions, which will be the general strike for the first four hours at the start of the shift of workers in the Palermo area for today, and a sit in which will be held at the same time from 9am in front of the Prefecture in via Cavour in Palermo. This was therefore the decision taken by the confederal unions, after learning of the Casteldaccia massacre in which five workers, including one temporary worker from Amap and four from an external contracting company from Partinico, died because they were trapped in the tunnels of the plant of wastewater lifting of the municipal aqueducts company. Another is seriously injured. “We are living with their families through hours of anguish and desperation, we will loudly ask for clarity on the dynamics, as we are sure the police and the judiciary are already working to understand if this absurd, enormous tragedy could have been avoided. Every company, every production reality, must place the lives of its workers as a priority over any other objective.” Cgil Cisl Uil add: “Let the cry rise from Palermo: institutions and civil society must unite in a common battle because, until every worker who does not return home, the work system will never be worthy of a civilized country. We need dialogue between all the entities involved, we need continuous and comprehensive checks, supervision of the procurement system, focusing on the training of workers but also of young people starting from school because it is a question of affirming a basic principle, prevention is also a cultural fact that everyone must make it a priority.”
