Tor Vergata, camps on fire: students fleeing the university

Flames at the Tor Vergata University of Rome, in the green area between Viale della Sorbona, Via Columbia and Via Cambridge. The fire broke out yesterday afternoon after 2pm, among the brushwood on the side of the road. But due to the strong wind, within a few minutes the flames reached the university buildings in via della Sorbona. Smoke enveloped the faculties of Literature and Economics, which were immediately evacuated while students and professors were busy with exams for the summer session, canceled due to the emergency. The alert was lifted around 5pm, thanks to the intervention of the Fire Brigade, civil protection and local police.
The emergency lasted more than two hours, during which the stretch of via Columbia between via Cambridge and viale della Sorbona was closed to traffic.
No one was injured, just a lot of fear for the students and teachers present inside the university, about a hundred of them. “We were in the library and we smelled a strong burning smell – says Kevin – people were alarmed and went out towards the car parks to move their cars”. The risk, in fact, was that the fire could reach the parking lot of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, breaking out among the cars, which were immediately moved.

THE INTERVENTION

«Each campus of the university has an emergency team, which was activated as soon as we noticed the column of smoke», explains Marco Sciarra, head of the Tor Vergata protection and prevention service. «At the beginning the fire was not that important, but the temperature range, the wind and the heat created a whirlwind effect which immediately caused the flames to rise. But thanks to the immediate intervention we avoided the disaster – adds Sciarra – the two faculties were totally surrounded by smoke”.
In fact, around 3pm, the university evacuated the Humanities and Economics buildings. “We heard the alarm and went out immediately,” says Giada, a literature student. “I left my office shortly before the evacuation but the corridors were already all shrouded in smoke, I couldn’t see anything,” explains Fabio Ciotti, a professor at the university. For students and staff, however, there were no consequences. No damage was reported to cars or university buildings either.
«The students followed the emergency plan and there were no problems – underlines Marco Sciarra – Tomorrow morning (today, ed.) we will do some checks to understand if there are any dioxins or combustion dust present in the ventilation systems. After the checks, we will reopen the ventilation systems of the structures.”

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