Fire under the viale Palmiro Togliatti overpass. Traffic at a standstill

Once again, via Collatina Vecchia is engulfed in flames. Piles of waste, as in the past, fueled the fire, making the air unbreathable due to the thick blanket of smoke.

The landfill located in the area between Togliatti and the urban section of the A24 was the source of the fire, which required the intervention of the firefighters from 1pm on Thursday 18 April 2024. The main outbreak occurred in via del Flauto .

To monitor air quality, ARPA has decided to install control units in the area.

To facilitate the firefighting operations, the local police of Roma Capitale closed Viale Palmiro Togliatti, in the direction of Via Prenestina, diverting traffic towards the urban section of the A24. This intervention was necessary to allow firefighters to operate safely.

This is not the first large fire to hit this area. Also last year, in March, a similar fire kept rescuers busy for several hours. Even earlier in 2019, a similar situation occurred. In the past, the area had suffered the eviction of an illegal settlement, leaving behind materials that fueled the fires. The current situation appears not to have changed.

“Thanks to the collaboration with Municipality IV, the funds necessary for a reclamation intervention by AMA which had already been scheduled had already been identified by the Waste Department of Rome Capital” declared the Councilor for the Environment and Rome Capital Waste Cycle Sabrina Alfonsi, present in the fire area together with the President of the IV municipality Massimiliano Umberti.

“There is regret, because the waste removal operation had already been planned for some time and would have been carried out in a few weeks. It is now a question of speeding up the procedure to remove the burnt waste and any waste that may have escaped the flames, as soon as the fire is put out and the area is made safe. It is also necessary – concluded Alfonsi – to start a very serious reflection on how to safeguard the reclaimed areas from the recurrence of illegal spills, otherwise the risk is to frustrate interventions which are in any case very costly for the public coffers”.

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