Bocar Diallo didn’t make it. The 31-year-old worker admitted to the Borgo Trento hospital in Verona died following “an acute lung episode”. He had burns on 57% of the body. He was part of the team of six workers who, at half past midnight on Friday, were hit by the explosion in the Aluminum foundry. The conditions of three other colleagues remain critical: Sokol Hyseini, 33 years old, also in Verona, and Aboubacar Djette, 25, in Murnau. Artan Vilathe team leader, 48 years old, is out of danger: the news comes from the Niguarda hospital in Milan. The prognosis of all three remains reserved.
The explosion and fire in the Aluminum factory in Bolzano
To understand what happened on that cursed night between Thursday and Friday, in via Toni Ebner, it will take time. The Scientific Police has already carried out the first surveys, but the appointment of a super expert seems obvious. The most accredited hypothesis, at the moment, is that of a failure during the casting phase: the molten aluminum would come into contact with water, and so it would be generated the explosion that gutted the warehouse. He hit the six workers on duty at the time, who had no escape.
The witness’s story: “I heard the roar but I was unharmed”
«I heard the explosion – says Hoxha Jetmir, the forklift driver who raised the alarm and was unharmed -, then I didn’t see anything anymore. I ran away, my colleagues running behind me, hit by a river of lava.”
The dream of a new life
The one who didn’t make it was Diallo. Senegalese, he was a political refugee. She left her country in 2011, dreaming of a new life in Europe, where two of her uncles also live (one in Vicenza, the other in Paris). He had crossed the desert, and in 2014, from Libya, he reached Sicily aboard a boat. He had arrived in Alto Adige, first at the former Gorio barracks in Bolzano, then at Casa Aaron in Bagni di Sulfo, then at the migrant center in Malles. Since March he had been living on the Zeiler farm: he had moved to Bolzano to be closer to his place of work, at Aluminium.
A year ago he got married, and he dreamed of bringing his wife to Italy, once factory stabilization has been achieved. Which now seemed imminent. Karin Cirimbelli, from SOS Bozen, who manages the facility, knew him well. «He was a cheerful boy. Great big, but here at the Zeiler farm it was as if he wasn’t there, how quiet and orderly it was. His life was all work, home and prayer. The only entertainment he allowed himself was the gym: he had signed up to the one in Via Pacinotti.” Cirimbelli cannot rest.
«The last time we spoke, he “reprimanded” me that I never had time for him. I told him that for me, he was one of those who had made it. He spoke Italian perfectlyhad a job, political asylum. He didn’t need me”. In addition to his wife, Bocar leaves behind a brother who lives in Merano. And who now, supported by the Senegalese community of Bolzano, He wants to bring his body back to Senegalfor the last farewell.
Aboubacar Djette
The conditions remain very serious Aboubacar Djette, «Buba» for friends. Also Senegalese, he attended school in Bolzano. In 2019 he started working: one year at Röchling, then at the Steelworks and then at Aluminum where, six months ago, he was stabilized. And six months ago he got married in Senegal, where his parents also live. In Naples, however, he has a brother, while in Bolzano he found a second family in Fcd Arberia, where he plays as a striker. On Saturday, a phone call came from Murnau to the employer: “Buba” spoke with him for a few minutes, telling him about the explosion. Then he was sedated again.
The deputy foreman
The conditions of Sokol Hyseini, an Albanian citizen, deputy foreman at Aluminium, are also very serious. His family joined him at the Verona hospital. However, he seems to be responding well to treatment: he has burns on 40% of his body, but his internal organs have not been affected and he has undergone the first reconstruction operations. But it will take months.
And he was also transferred to Verona yesterday Mor-Diarra Mboup39 years old, Senegalese: he is out of danger, but the doctors wanted to move him to a specialized center that can take care of the serious burns he suffered on his feet. He has a daughter who lives with her mother in Bologna, and has been working at Aluminum for three months. Until now, he had remained at San Maurizio, first in Intensive Care and then in Dermatology, together with his colleague Oussama Ben Yahya, Tunisian, 27 years old, who arrived in Bolzano three years ago. Next to him is his brother and colleague: he is in shock. Yesterday, positive news arrived from Milan about Artan Vila, 48 years old, Albanian and a “key worker”, in the words of Michele Masella, director of the plant where he has worked for 40 years. He has second and third degree burns on 50% of his body, but his life is no longer in danger.
