Port of Ancona: meeting between prosecutors and technicians, after hearing witnesses. Schools reopen

• Ancona, huge fire in the port area.

  "Keep windows closed"

Share

17 September 2020

A meeting that lasted an hour and a half in the offices on the third floor of the Procura of Ancona between the prosecutor in charge of the investigations, Irene Adelaide Bilotta, the head of the Mobile Squad Carlo Pinto, the captain of the Noe dei Carabinieri Antonio De Santis, firefighters and Arpam to take stock of the fire that broke out in the port of Ancona on the night between 15 and 16 September last.

No toxic or particularly noxious substances have been detected in the fumes dispersed in the air, while the causes remain to be ascertained and fraud is not excluded.

The images of the video surveillance cameras in the area affected by the fire and analyzed by the police do not provide decisive elements.

Heard by the judicial agents, however, several witnesses by the judicial agents.

Schools and day centers

reopen tomorrow Schools, nursery schools, universities, semi-residential centers, parks and outdoor sports facilities reopen tomorrow in Ancona.

The restrictive measures adopted yesterday as a precautionary measure by the Doric municipal administration, after the fire in the port area, have been revoked.

"In light of the information shared totally with Arpam, Fire Brigade, Asur Marche and Civil Protection, we have reason to be able to reduce the limitations applied yesterday, in the hours immediately following the fire - explains the mayor, Valeria Mancinelli in a note -. the result of the analyzes over the next few hours and days (on dioxins and heavy metals) we already believe that the measures adopted are appropriate ".

Extraordinary cleaning interventions continue, some recommendations remain in place

As a precaution, pending the results that will be provided by Arpam by Sunday, the extraordinary cleaning interventions of the streets will continue to remove the deposited materials and some recommendations will remain in place, such as washing the surfaces outside the houses, avoid the consumption of large-leaved vegetables produced in the municipal area and wash other fruit and vegetables well under running water.

Meanwhile, the firefighters have now definitively extinguished the fire, while the Arpam has found that the level of presence of hydrogen cyanide (potentially deriving from the combustion of polyurethane) is totally non-existent in the air in the five points of the city where the detections, while in the epicenter of the fire it is ten times below the limit threshold.

According to what the administration reports, also the values ​​of Pm1, constantly measured by the Cittadella station, show a significant downsizing with a return to the standard parameters (from 250 micrograms per cubic meter to 13).

The increase in the presence of dust in the air that occurs in the morning hours (yesterday and today) is due to the nocturnal evaporation of the heat that collides with the cold air and has nothing to do with the fire.

"The fact that you continue to feel an acrid smell in some parts of the city is in no way an indication of danger - the experts explain in a note from the Municipality -. Given the current weather conditions and also given the handling of the burnt material, it is It is physiological that bad smells circulate. From Asur Marche confirms that no access has been reported to the emergency room of the Salesi and Torrette hospitals for particular situations, connected to the fumes produced by the fire ".

Arpam: "Hydrocyanic acid in the air, but limited to a fire point"

The data found since yesterday morning in the Ancona air after the vast fire that burned an area of ​​40 thousand square meters of the port have now been presented by Arpam, where material storage sheds insist.

From the first results expected just for today and until Sunday, one of the most anticipated parameters emerged, considering the combustion of polyurethane: hydrogen cyanide.

"From the sampling carried out - explains Giancarlo Marchetti, director of Arpam - it is not present in 5 points of the city, while it is minimally present at the point of the fire. However, being very low, it remained limited. We continue to measure the other parameters as well. , this afternoon we must have asbestos, even if we know that there was no asbestos in the structures because it was reclaimed, tomorrow we will have the results of metals and volatile organic solvents such as benzene. Sunday, however, we will give the data on dioxins ".

"Tomorrow and Sunday - Marchetti anticipates - we will give the values ​​of what we breathed from 4 in the morning of the fire. A significant fact is that we have a fixed station in Cittadella (port area) which records the value of 10 pm daily and one pm time 1. The pm value that was triggered at midnight before the fire until midnight last night was 91, when the limit is 50. The limit, however, can be exceeded by cities 35 times in a year . 1 pm peaked on the morning of the fire and then went down gradually. This morning at 5 am it went back up to 50 due to the phenomenon of thermal inversion and we could probably smell burning in the next few days too, although the fire is now extinguished ".