Explosion at the Eni depot in Calenzano: 5 victims. Sabotage excluded, seizure triggered
The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, telephoned the President of the Region of Tuscany, Eugenio Giani, to get information on the injured, to bring solidarity to the families
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CALENZANO - The body of the last person reported missing in the explosion at the Eni depot in Calenzano has also been found. The number of victims thus rises to five. According to information, they were found in the canopy of the loading area. The injured total 26.
The explosion occurred in an area defined as the loading point where tankers refuel. More than one vehicle was involved in the flames as well as the structure's canopy. The A1 exit was closed and trains stopped. Masks were distributed at the scene.
Cause to be ascertained
.The causes of the accident, which could have been even more serious had it involved the tank farm, are unknown at the moment. The Eni plant, precisely because it stores fossil fuels, was considered among those at risk of a major accident. The Careggi hospital, which is only a few kilometres away, and other hospitals in the area were alerted. Traffic was disrupted: both motorway traffic, due to the closure of the Calenzano exit on the A1 motorway, the nerve centre of the country's north-south connections, which was later reopened, and the interruption of the railway line from Bologna to Florence and from Florence to Prato, Pistoia and Lucca. Replacement buses were activated.
Civil Protection alert
.The Civil Protection's warning system worked, albeit a little late. At 11.25 a.m., the alarm for the incident that had happened an hour earlier at the Eni industrial plant in Calenzano, in the province of Florence, near the I Gigli shopping centre, with 'presence of dangerous substances', the message read: "Find shelter indoors and do not go near the plant", was the advice given in Italian and English to those who were within a five-kilometre radius of the incident, i.e. in the area between Prato and Florence, where many had heard the roar, glass shaking and seen black smoke spreading.
The municipalities of Calenzano, Campi Bisenzio and Sesto Fiorentino have advised the population to keep their windows closed. The accident has caused - as far as has been ascertained so far - two deaths, nine injured, two of whom are in serious condition, and three missing. Eni, for now, has limited itself to specifying in a note that the explosion did not occur in the fuel depot but in the area of the loading shelters, where the tankers are refuelled: "The flames do not affect the tank farm in any way," the company specified. The fire brigade is completing the extinguishing work. Rescue workers are at work, with ambulances ready to leave the depot, while the Prefecture of Florence has convened the Rescue Coordination Centre.
