three workers fall under the eyes of the children – Corriere.it

A thud, the scaffolding that opens in two, wooden planks and iron pipes crashing to the ground from a height of 25 meters. It is 10 am and on the top floor of the scaffolding that surrounds a building in Viale Carrù 9, in Rivoli, there are three workers: Massimo Curcelli, 49-year-old crane operator of Apulian origins who lives in Collegno; Mohamed Hassan, an Egyptian bricklayer who requested political asylum in Italy, 38 years to be completed in a few days; Salim Abderrazak, a 27-year-old Tunisian, arrived from the province of Reggio Calabria. All employees of the Giemme company which in Viale Carrù is completing a building recovery intervention with superbonus and sismabonus at 110%. «They were cleaning the loading area – tell other workers -. They didn’t have time to react and they slipped down ».

A leap into the void from the sixth floor, meeting almost certain death. Instead, the tree placed a few meters from the facade miraculously softens the impact. One of the three laborers manages to cling to a branch, but then he too falls into the courtyard. For a few seconds a cloud of dust covers everything, then the screams of pain begin. Massimo, Mohamed and Salim are still alive. Three ambulances arrive in Cascine Vica to help the injured, but Salim Abderrazak’s conditions seem desperate. He is unconscious, the nurses try to revive him for several minutes and finally his heart starts beating regularly. An ambulance transports him to the Rivoli hospital in very serious condition. The doctors have reserved the prognosis and do not rule out the danger of life. Massimo Curcelli’s clinical picture is also very delicate. After being transported to the Turin CTO, he underwent urgent surgery at Molinette for a ruptured aorta and a haemorrhage in his spleen. In the evening he returned to the CTO where he will have to undergo another operation for fractures to the pelvis and leg. For him too, as for Mohamed Hassan, hospitalized at San Luigi in Orbassano, the prognosis is reserved.

“The loading area was empty, I don’t know what happened, I only saw the deck that opened like a book – he says Antonio Curreli, employee of Ft Scaffolding, a company that subcontracted the intervention for the refurbishment of the roofs -. I only dealt with the roof. We have been here since April, we have rebuilt two more identical buildings and there have never been any problems. We had been working on this building for a month, but the scaffolding was assembled at the beginning. The roof part is practically finished, it would take another month to finish the facade ». Curreli is still shocked: «I was very scared. I’ve known Massimo for two years, I met the other two guys only a few days ago, because maybe they moved them to other places before. I’m really very sorry, I’m rooting for them ».

The investigations that will have to ascertain the causes of the collapse they are conducted by the Rivoli carabinieri and by the inspectors of the ASL To3 Spresal. For the moment, no hypothesis is excluded, not even that of structural failure. But it is possible that the scaffolding was partially disarmed, that some anchors had been removed. An operation that could have been carried out to allow some interventions on the cornice, but for the moment it is only investigative hypotheses that must be confirmed. Furthermore, the investigators’ attention is focusing on the top floor of the scaffolding to ascertain any anomalies with respect to the design. “The construction sector is under stress due to the effects of the super bonus – commented by the top management of the CGIL – After a week full of accidents in the Turin area, it is clear that what has been done so far, for example on the staff and functions of the Inspectorate of work, it is not enough ».

The scaffolding had been there for months but was checked before the summer by a technicianreveal the trade unionists Stefano Ponzuoli and Federico Bellono: “No critical issues had emerged, then what happened will be discovered by the investigators”.

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