“A tragedy that was narrowly avoided thanks to the rescuers. But the scare was strong.” Speaking in chorus in the early afternoon of Thursday 27 June were the mayor Max Pederzoliand the Councillor for Civil Protection Dario Lakesboth in the municipality of Brisighella, a small town in the Faenza hinterland, in Ravenna where this morning three boys aged 12, 10 and 8 and an educator of 24 years who accompanied them were saved by the firefighters after they ended up in the water, in the river, Lamonewhich borders the municipality and cuts the nearby town of in two Faenza.
Saved from the Lamone flood: «Forty minutes in the water»
To tell the truth i quattro they emerged unscathed from the water also due to the tenacity with which they managed to cling to the trunk of a tree, in the center of the stream that kept them afloat: They remained in the water for 40 minutes. “After heavy rains of these last few days the river is still quite full. In the past few days, in fact, the riverbed was even muddy. This gives an idea of the risks that these children and the girl ran”, explains Councilor Laghi.
«They walked to the riverside to retrieve the slipper»
According to an initial reconstruction, which was also made by the carabinieri of Faenza arrived on site together with the fire fighters of the commands of Faenza and Bologna, from where they left with the helicopter team, the three children accompanied by the 24 year old would have walked along the river to try to retrieve a slipper lost. Then, with the Lamone in flood, the waters would have dragged him down together, after a few moments, too another child was dragged into the water followed by the last one, who had tried in vain to hold him back.
The mayor of Brisighella: «It was a mistake committed»
At that point the young educator would have despises to try to recover them but without managing to return to shore. The distance was short, but the resistance was too much from the overflowing river. «Unfortunately – say the mayor and councilor – it was committed a carelessness. We don’t know what type but the argument applies both if the search for this lost object was underway and if, as some hypothesize, the children and the girl had taken a dive, because it must be said that the rescuers recovered them they were all wearing bathing suits.”
«We feared we would repeat the Natisone tragedy»
The mayor and the councilor have not ruled out that investigations will be carried out into the possible responsibilities for what happened. “For a moment I feared I would have to experience the Natisone tragedy up close,” said the mayor of Brisighella. Both the children and the young woman, despite the 40 minutes spent in the water at the mercy of the river, they are well and have been visited by health personnel present on site with an ambulance even before the rescue, carried out by the river rescuers of the fire brigade with a system of suspended ropes. According to reports, the children and the educator came from the headquarters of a nearby association and on the morning of June 27 they were engaged in an excursion in a larger group of about ten people.
