PALERMO – They died of poisoning in an environment “saturated with toxic gases”. The five victims breathed in a huge amount of hydrogen sulfide. There was a concentration ten times higher than the tolerable threshold. They weren’t wearing masks.
The Fire Brigade Commander speaks
It is the commander of the Palermo fire brigade, Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra, who explains what happened in the wastewater lifting plant in Casteldaccia. “If all the necessary precautions had been taken, all of this would not have happened,” he adds.
The tragedy six meters underground
The workers were working on the second level of the plant. A system of ladders took them down to a depth of 5-6 metres. The firefighters found three bodies inside the sewage tank, a 5 by 5 meter tank with 80 centimeters of wastewater.
Three other bodies lay in the slab that separates two levels of the facility. Hence the hypothesis that the workers may have tried to save colleagues who had felt ill. A desperate attempt that ended up killing them too.
