Tragedy in Casteldaccia: Fatal Sewer Gas Poisoning Claims Lives of Workers

When she crosses the safety tape, set up by the carabinieri to isolate the area of the massacre in Casteldaccia, a town 25 kilometers from Palermo, the woman stops. She looks to her right. Parked, close to the sidewalk, is a car: it is an Alfa Romeo Stelvio. "It's my dad's car, it's his... It's my dad's car." She cries, she despairs. Supporting the woman is a cousin. It's heartbreaking. Under the coat of state road 113, a few meters from the Duca di Salaparuta wine cellar, the firefighters have just recovered the bodies of five workers. Workers dead in Casteldaccia, what happened? The toxic hydrogen sulfide emissions, the malaise, and the sewer trap. The victims died from inhaling hydrogen sulfide in the confined space, produced by sewage with a concentration ten times higher than the limit. The victims are Epifanio Alsazia, 71 years old from Partinico, co-owner of the Quadrifoglio group srl, which had won the contract from Amap, the Palermo company, for the maintenance of the sewage tank in the eastern area of Casteldaccia; Giuseppe Miraglia, 47 years old from San Cipirrello (Palermo), Roberto Raneri, 51 years old from Alcamo (Trapani), Ignazio Giordano, 59 years old, and Giuseppe La Barbera, 26 years old, a temporary worker for Amap, the contracting station. The families in shock. "I saw the faces of the poor workers, they had a color that as a former forensic doctor tells me they died from poisoning," explains the regional labor councilor, Nuccia Albano, after the inspection in Casteldaccia on behalf of the president of the Region Renato Schifani. A sixth worker, Domenico Viola, 62 years old, is in serious condition and is hospitalized at the Policlinico of Palermo. Three other workers escaped it, they did not lower themselves into the tunnel with the killer gas: Giovanni D'Aleo, 44 years old, Giuseppe Scavuzzo, 39 years old, and Paolo Sciortino, 35 years old, were taken to the hospital in Termini Imerese (Palermo) as a precaution, they are in shock but without particular problems. The pain remains very high: "I have my daughter at home with two children, I am going to her," says in tears the father-in-law of Giuseppe La Barbera, the temporary worker who died underground who had rushed to help his colleagues after hearing screams. Having learned the news, Antonio Di Salvo, 67 years old, owner of Quadrifoglio Srl, is returning to Sicily from the United States where he is for a relative's wedding. His partner Epifanio Alsazia is one of the five victims. "It's a huge tragedy, I still can't understand what could have happened during the intervention. They are workers who know what they do, I don't think they could have been overwhelmed by the emissions," says Pietro Rao, mayor of Partinico, who went to via Milano, headquarters of the Quadrifoglio Group where four of the victims from Casteldaccia were employed. The works along state road 113 had been arranged following repeated reports in recent days on anomalies in the sewage network, in the stretch between the intersection with via della Rotonda and the lifting station called "Vini Corvo". Cgil Cisl and Ull have declared a general strike for 4 hours in the province of Palermo and 8 hours for the construction category for tomorrow.