Explosion in a migrant reception centre in Italy

At 1am on Saturday morning there was a loud explosion in the migrant reception centre of San Lorenzo Nuovo, in the Viterbo area. 31 people were injured, 6 of whom were serious, all were admitted to various hospitals in Rome, Viterbo, Tarquinia, Orvieto and Pisa and 2 have been transferred to the large burns unit at Sant’Eugenio in Rome. The injured, all of different nationalities, are aged between 1 and 62 years of age.

The centre is a facility housing asylum seekers, mainly families, located in the town’s industrial area: the cause of the explosion is still unknown at the moment. The migrants were housed in mini-apartments of the ‘Ospita’company’s reception facility.

Emergency meeting

The prefect of Viterbo, Antonio Cananà, has called an emergency meeting to find out the cause. “There were no gas mains inside the structure,” explained the administrators of ‘Ospita’, “either for heating and cooking, we will have to ascertain the origins of the explosion.”

Investigations to find the cause of the explosion

In the late morning, an inspection by Viterbo fire brigade investigators was carried out at the site of ttheexplosion. The cause that triggered the fire, completely destroyed the migrant accommodation building as well as 2 adjacent businesses: a carpentry shop and a small winery.

The incident is being investigated by the Montefiascone Carabinieri. At first, unconfirmed rumours spoke of a gas leak as the probable cause of the explosion. The hypothesis was firmly denied by Sebastiano Sani, the company’s lawyer and co-owner of the building: “We used only electricity, both for heating and cooking”. However, a statement by the colonel of the Carabinieri, Massimo Frianosaid, “the most probable hypothesis remains that it was generated by a room saturated with gas”. At this point it would remain to be seen where this hypothetical gas leak could have originated.

Photo: Vigili del Fuoco