The prosecutor's footage, the fuel spill, the workers on the trolley: the bolts connecting the flanges were missing. The investigation focuses on workers
A new film on the massacre at the Eni depot in Calenzano in the province of Florence. Which resumes the moments before the explosion on December 9th which caused 5 deaths and 26 injuries. And it shows that between bay 6 and bay 7 of the loading shelter there was a large fuel spill. While two workers were on a forklift. The leak was coming from a pipe on the hanging structure. Which was missing the safety bolts at the flanges that connected it to the other. The video is in the records of the Prato prosecutor's office led by Luca Tescaroli.
The images
The images recorded a few seconds before the explosion reveal the abundant escape of a liquid, probably fuel. And the formation of a dense cloud close to the site of the explosion. It occurred, technically writes the prosecutor, «while workers, wearing a white overall, are engaged in work on a forklift near the place where there is a pipe placed on the hanging structure, which, in correspondence with two flanges, appears be without safety bolts”. The magistrates are investigating for multiple manslaughter, intentional collapse of buildings and intentional removal or omission of precautions against accidents at work.
Malfunction reports
In May it was the Uil Trasporti union that sent Eni a report about the malfunction in the plant. «From the information received by us it would appear that this anomaly concerns the recovery of vapors so the malfunction would cause leakage of hydrocarbons, causing the vapors deriving from the hydrocarbons loaded and stored in the site in question to propagate into the surrounding environment. If the report turns out to be well-founded, it would constitute a serious shortcoming or, worse yet, carelessness not only for the health of the direct staff but also for the indirect staff of the supplier companies who carry out tanker loading operations several times every day, but also a risk of pollution. environmental with all the consequences and risks that derive from it. We invite you to check and, if necessary, take appropriate measures in order to reassure the workers concerned”, we read in an email.
Failure to comply with procedures
The Prosecutor's Office hypothesizes that the fuel spill was caused by “clear failure to comply with the strict procedures established and that the consequences of this wicked conduct could not have been known or assessed by the personnel working on site”. The workers seen in the video, Repubblica reports, are from Sergen. They were fixing a disused pipe. Removing the flags, or rings that join multiple parts of a pipe, may have weakened the pipeline. Causing the flammable liquid to leak.
