Five people died from poisoning in the workplace massacre which occurred in Casteldaccia, in the Palermo area, where a team of workers was carrying out some sewerage work on behalf of Amap. There are four survivors, one of whom is hospitalized in very serious conditions. One worker was uninjured atAdnkronos he said: “Suddenly I heard my colleagues screaming, and I immediately raised the alarm. I feel like a miracle worker. I’m in shock. I don’t want to say anything else.”
The victims
The victims are Epifanio Alsazia, 71 years old from Partinico, co-owner of the company Quadrifoglio group srl which had won the contract from Amap, the Palermo company, for the maintenance work on the sewerage tank in the eastern area of Casteldaccia; Giuseppe Miraglia, 47 years old, originally from San Cipirrello (Palermo), Roberto Raneri, 51 years old, from Alcamo (Trapani), Ignazio Giordano, 59 years old and Giuseppe La Barbera, 26 years old, temporary worker at Amap.
The youngest victim was about to celebrate her wedding anniversary
Giuseppe La Barbera, the youngest of the dead workers, is the only one from Palermo and is originally from the Albergheria district where the popular Ballarò market is located. He got married in May 2019 and in a few days he would have celebrated 5 years of marriage. He leaves behind his young wife and two small children. Many in the neighborhood know him and remember him because his family sells gas cylinders and most of the homes in the neighborhood do not have methane and use the gas in metal containers which is brought home. And until a few years ago it was Giuseppe himself who brought the cylinders to those who requested them. For years the young man had got by as best he could with the most disparate jobs to help his family. Then he found a job in a company and was a temporary worker at Amap. Those who knew him define him as “a good and good boy, a hard worker”.
The survivors
Of the four survivors, a worker from the Quadrifoglio group company is hospitalized in intensive care at the Palermo Polyclinic: Domenico Viola, 62 years old, from Partinico. His condition is serious. The other three are Giovanni D’Aleo, 44 years old, Giuseppe Scavuzzo, 39 years old, and Paolo Sciortino, 35 years old, they were taken to the Termini Imerese hospital as a precaution, they are in shock but without particular problems.
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What happened
According to an initial reconstruction, the five workers died one after the other by lowering themselves into a manhole of the sewage plant. After the first worker remained underground without re-emerging, the others lowered themselves to understand what was happening. The seventh member of the team, not seeing his colleagues come out, raised the alarm. “I saw the faces of the poor workers, they had a color that as a former medical examiner makes me think of intoxication”, he told theHandle the regional councilor for Labour, Nuccia Albano, leaving the site of the massacre. “If all the necessary precautions had been taken, all of this would not have happened”, underlined the provincial commander of the Palermo Fire Brigade Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra, confirming that hydrogen sulphide fumes killed the victims.
