Fear on the valley floor in the Casona area of Marano sul Panaro where on Saturday evening just before 11pm a car went off the road and completely demolished a methane reduction cabin. The impact caused an explosion heard kilometers away followed by a frightening flame about ten meters high. In a short time, several reports arrived at the fire brigade operations room. The worst was feared; The team that arrived on site immediately ascertained that there was no one inside the car and then proceeded to keep the car wet as it was very close to the flames.
A delicate operation which also immediately required the intervention of an Inrete Hera technician, who immediately interrupted the gas supply in the area. 118, the local police from Vignola and Zocca also arrived on site.
The driver of the car had walked away after the collision and was stopped about three hundred meters downstream by a Guardia di Finanza patrol. The accident had consequences for around 2,100 families in the Marano area who were left without gas, including several businesses, especially restaurants. Among the damaged premises was ‘Bacche di Lauro’ which had to cancel lunch and dinner reservations. “Now who will compensate?” is asked while waiting to be able to leave again.
“The procedures provide that once the network is closed, all the users must be closed – explained Paolo Calani, Inrete technician – this means that all the meters are closed individually. Once the users are closed, the network is put back under pressure and then gradually restore the service to everyone”. And so it was. At work throughout the day yesterday, 6 teams of technicians rang the doorbells of all the homes affected including the lower part of Villabianca, Ospitaletto, upstream of the accident in Casona and Festà to close the meter valves. The surgery went on non-stop for hours. The Municipality has constantly updated citizens also via the social page. Yesterday evening, the first phase, i.e. making it safe, ended as expected and the second began: bringing the system back to pressure. This morning the third phase of extraordinary maintenance will begin, in which InRete technicians will return to all the street numbers of the 2100 users involved, to gradually reopen the meters.
The third phase will last – it is expected – until this evening, to guarantee the restoration of the medium and low pressure line, both for domestic and production users.
Emanuela Zanasi
