Fire in the night in Messina. The flames broke out, for reasons still being ascertained (but arson is suspected), in one of the uninhabited shacks in the Taormina district. The police were on site investigating the origins of the fire and the firefighters with a team equipped with tankers and ladder trucks, who struggled quite a bit to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading to nearby buildings. In fact, the first flames spread shortly after midnight and the firefighters had their work cut out for them until almost dawn today. This morning the military personnel are acquiring images from the cameras of the video surveillance systems installed in the area.
In the morning the firefighters returned to the site of the fire to extinguish the last outbreaks. Also on site was the municipal police commander Giovanni Giardina, who reported to the engineer Santi Trovato, sub-commissioner for the rehabilitation, who was also present on site for an inspection. The sub-commissioner examined the entire area affected by the fire, which broke out inside one of the barracks and then spread to the one next door. The lot to which the two buildings belong is adjacent to the one where a fire destroyed other shacks in March last year. The assigned families who resided in the area have long since moved to the new accommodation but the cleared barracks have become receptacles for waste of all kinds.
“I thank the fire brigade personnel, the municipal police officers, the commander Giardina, the police forces for the immediacy of the intervention and for ensuring the protection of the area – declared Trovato – We are waiting for the reports on the incident and I would like to underline that the fire broke out in shacks that were already destined for demolition. We handed over the works to the company therefore, after the removal of the accumulated waste by MSBC, the demolitions will proceed as identified. We will secure the entire area starting tomorrow morning.