Rome explosion: first suspects in the coming days

Dioxin levels are falling and the Prenestino neighbourhood of Rome is slowly returning to normal, but new judicial developments are emerging in the case of the petrol station explosion that occurred two days ago in Via dei Gordiani, in the capital, due to a gas leak in the LPG depot. The first entries in the register of suspects in the Rome Public Prosecutor's enquiry into the fuel station explosion on Friday, 4 July in Via Gordiani will arrive in the coming days. A massacre was close.

Police, Carabinieri, local police and fire brigade are busy drawing up a report for the magistrates of the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office. In the file, at the moment the offences of culpable disaster and injury are being hypothesised, but the investigators could also consider environmental offences. During the week, witnesses will be heard, starting with those who were at the petrol station at the time: on this aspect, fundamental to reconstructing what happened, will be the analysis of the cameras in the area that may have immortalised the phases preceding the explosion.

The clean-up will continue over the next few days, in order to acquire as much data as possible to provide to the prosecutors. In the meantime, the analyses ordered by Arpa have detected a presence of dioxin in the air, which was reduced thanks to the timely intervention of the fire brigade, which managed to quickly put out the flames, averting the worst. "The speed with which the fire brigade worked made it possible to extinguish the flames quickly and thus reduced the amount of dioxin released into the air. It is well known that the longer a fire lasts, the higher the temperatures it reaches and the more dioxins are released into the air. Granted that health assessments are the responsibility of the local health authority," explained the city's civil protection office, "at the moment we can say that we have averted the worst, since the first day of monitoring was the one most at risk in terms of air toxicity.

Meanwhile, local residents are breathing a sigh of relief. The director of Roma Capitale's civil protection department, Giuseppe Napolitano, reassured that 'the cautious optimism of the last few hours has been confirmed by Arpa's measurements', announcing that 'the dioxin values are within the norm, and this confirms the goodness of the fire brigade's operations'. According to the data released by Arpa Lazio, the sample detected between 5 July and 6 July is now 0.1 picograms per cubic metre, compared to the value of 1 detected between Friday and Saturday.

The recommendation remains to continue washing fruit and vegetables thoroughly before consuming them. Also under the spotlight remains the clinical evolution of the two most seriously injured people admitted following the explosion, one of whom had been rescued by the Carabinieri during first aid and transported to the hospital with a patrol of the military, because several ambulances had caught fire during the deflagration. The first patient, who had third degree burns on 25 per cent of his body at the time of admission, was extubated, while the second, with burns on 55 per cent of his body, will undergo a skin transplant on Tuesday. The prognosis for both remains reserved. 'The general clinical condition of the first patient,' explains the Asl, 'is gradually improving and the clinical response to treatment is to be considered positive'. Less easy is the situation of the second injured man, who will undergo an initial operation next Tuesday, at the Sant'Eugenio hospital, which involves - as explained - 'the transplant of skin tissue from a donor, followed by a complex series of grafting procedures'.