VITERBO – Over 36 thousand people have been evacuated – practically half of the residents – for the operations that will lead to the defusing of the Second World War bomb found in Via Alcide De Gasperi last March 20th during work on a construction site.
As we write, the device is at the Monte Romano range, where it was transported to be emptied of its explosive contents estimated at over 1300 kg.
The ones who operated were the Army bomb disposal experts of the 6th Pioneer Engineer Regiment under the orders of Colonel Gianbasilio Profiti and Capt. Luigi Prencipe who explained that the name of the bomb is “Lady Rose” in honor of Santa Rosa.
It was a very complex procedure coordinated by the Prefecture of Viterbo which involved the Municipality, the Police Force, the Italian Red Cross and the Army bomb squad.
Before starting the procedure, the area to be evacuated was identified – called the “red zone” – defined with a circle with a radius of 1.4km around the point where the bomb was found.
To limit the evacuation area and the resulting inconvenience to the local population, the military created a containment structure capable of mitigating the possible effects due to a possible accidental explosion during the delicate defusing activities. This allowed the clearing radius to be reduced to just 1,400 metres.
Almost half of the inhabitants of the entire city live in that area.
At 7am this morning the electricity and gas supply was cut off to homes and businesses within a 500 meter radius of the bomb.
By 9am they must have cleared everyone out.
Since it was a planned operation, many people organized it independently, with friends or relatives or even outside the city; those who had no alternatives filled out the questionnaire provided by the Municipality in recent days and found accommodation in one of the 24 collection points, three reception centers plus two others for people with fragility also set up in four parishes of the capital. Six shuttles have been organized available for travel.
During the evacuation period, the entire area was cordoned off to avoid entry and manned by all the police forces to avoid possible looting, also through the use of nine drones from the Rescue Drones Network OdV Association which transmit the images directly to the Police Headquarters operations centre, already at work since yesterday evening.
The defusing operation was signaled by the sound of sirens at 10.27am this morning.
This was the most delicate phase: the actual defuse operation, that is, the moment in which the bomb squad removes and neutralizes the fuses (three in this case) intended to detonate the bomb.
The apprehension of an entire city was felt everywhere. While the Bishop HE Rev. Mons. Orazio Francesco Piazza officiated the SS. Mass in the Church of Saints Ilario and Valentino in Villanova (a reception center dedicated to vulnerable people), Police Commissioner Fausto Vinci reassured that the evacuation had taken place regularly and that the citizens had collaborated without problems.
The declarations of the Prefect Gennaro Capo who spoke at the reception center of Villanova where there was also the Mayor Chiara Frontini were of the same tenor and she hoped that the citizens would experience this day with the least possible inconvenience and thanked everyone for their great collaboration demonstrated.
The press conference for the conclusion of the operations to clear the explosive device recently ended, which was attended by the Prefect, the Police Commissioner, the Mayor and the heads of the Carabinieri, the State Police, the Fire Brigade, the GdF, the Police Local and the Italian Red Cross which – in coordination with Ares 118, the ASL, the Misericordia and the Spledid cooperative – took care of the evacuation of the most vulnerable part of the population.
During the press conference, all the authorities present expressed their satisfaction with the success of the entire operation, praising the staff of all the entities who collaborated to ensure that everything was carried out in the best possible way.
Particular thanks were addressed to the population for the great sense of responsibility demonstrated and for the active collaboration in every phase of the operation.
The bomb, with a diameter of 76 cm, 2.08 m long and 0.77 cm thick, contained over 1,300 kg of explosives inside.
The 2,000 kg “Lady Rose” is the largest type and is the sixth found in Italy.
