Ten meter high flames erupted from the courtyard of a building at number 69 of via Regina Margherita – behind the central seafront – where a small hut used by an elderly person, resident in the building, for his jobs and hobbies caught fire. It was completely incinerated by the fire, which broke out yesterday afternoon just before 4pm, which threatened nearby houses and from which a column of thick smoke visible from other neighborhoods rose. The Civitanova firefighters, who intervened with three vehicles, contained the fire in front of many people who took to the streets, using foam to put it out and prevent it from spreading to other homes and methane meters. Wooden and plastic materials and even the electricity wires that supplied power to the street were burned by the flames, with a blackout that lasted an hour before Enel staff could work to restore electricity. “It was the fault of a cigarette that remained lit”, the elderly man told those who asked him what had caused the fire, a version also provided to the rescuers. The neighbors are scared. “I was lying on the sofa and I saw the very high flames beyond the window glass. It was a huge scare and I feared the worst because the boiler is next door” says a resident of the ground floor apartment behind of the shed, beyond a wall no higher than two meters. There are three damaged buildings, all overlooking the courtyard that housed the burned structure; mainly the building at number 69, affected by the fire which reached the roof, made safe by the firefighters who used the ladder truck to hoist themselves up there and remove the unsafe gutters. The flames also caused a window to burst in the stairwell of the building at the back of the shed, while the smoke blackened the wing of the building overlooking the courtyard. A patrol from the police station intervened on site and the officers acquired testimonies from the elderly man and the residents of via Regina Margherita, in particular those of the damaged buildings.
