With a ruling last September the second civil section of the Court of Reggio Calabria has the Ministry of the Interior sentenced to compensate one million and 276 thousand euros to the family members of a Calabrian firefighter died prematurely due to exposure to asbestos.
The lawyer protected the injured parties Elisa Ferrarello of the Frisani law firm of Florence. The sentence today became final. Since 1973 the man had served at the central command of the Reggio Calabria fire brigade and, in the nineties, moved to the airport detachment, until 2004, the date of his retirement. With a press note, the lawyer made it known that the policeman «had used asbestos sheets and blankets in fires of cars, cylinders, country sheds and asbestos products. The killer fiber was in the gloves and suit he used to defend himself from the flames.
Clothing that the man also wore during the repeated exercises of the young firefighters whose training he was in charge of.” «No one has ever given us indications or information on the harmfulness of asbestos. – declared a witness heard during the trial – I discovered it because starting from 1998 I began to lose many friends”. One of these was the Calabrian firefighter who, in 2011, was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma.
«One of his sons had taken him to the hospital in Brescia, where he had been operated on, in a desperate attempt to save his life – explains the lawyer Ferrarello – In 2012 the disease had prevailed and left the family in desperation of a loss that was too great precocious, at only 65 years old.” The lawyer reports an excerpt from the sentence according to which “the death could have been avoided”. Furthermore, judge Dionisio Pantano awarded one of the firefighter’s daughters a percentage of biological damage resulting from mourning. «Unfortunately there is a growing number of firefighters who died due to carrying out their duties, throughout Italy, our firm is supporting several cases, mainly in Liguria and new requests arrive every day, especially from Northern Italy» is the comment by lawyer Elisa Ferrarello.