Skyscraper on fire in Milan: extinguishing operations are still in progress. No casualties

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August 30, 2021 So much fear for the fire that broke out in the "Torre del Moro" skyscraper, a residential complex that houses 60 families. While the extinguishing operations are underway in via Antonini, in the Famagosta area south of Milan, it is heartening to know that there is no victim. The firefighters entered to "break through, one after the other, all the doors and make sure that the people had gone out", declared the governor of Lombardy Attilio Fontana the day after the incident.

Residents were evacuated or reached by telephone, including artist Mahmood, of whom there was initially no news.

The drama of those moments is testified by the inhabitants and by another artist who has lived for just over a month next to the building: "The pieces of the facade were falling and there was a lot of smoke, in addition to the fire. It was a hallucinating scene, the flames were very high. We got scared and ran away ", says Morgan on Instagram:" We were in the house, a fire broke out, it's incredible there's a skyscraper that is completely on fire. It's absurd, hallucinating, we were to catch fire too, we were in the house next door. It's incredible, I didn't even get the house keys because I ran away as soon as I felt the heat in the house ".

It will be up to the judiciary to establish the causes of the flames, which seem to have started from the facade, made up, according to the residents, of fireproof material. Theme taken up by Professor Angelo Lucchini, professor of technical architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and expert in tall and complex buildings and issues related to safety and fire: "I can only make hypotheses based on what I see and what I read. I have to say one thing: since the fire seems to have spread only externally, if something did not work it concerns only the casing and in particular its coating. It means that the internal security system has worked ".

For Lucchini, the building on the outside lit like a match "because the cladding was made of combustible material, capable of reacting quickly to the trigger which, as far as we know, seems to have occurred on a high floor", he emphasizes. 'expert, pointing out that for facades "it is inappropriate and does not reconcile with the fire safety requirements set by the Ministry of the Interior for civil buildings". An obligation does not exist, Lucchini remarks: "The guidelines prepared by the fire brigade for the ministry, which were very well done, however, have the value of a recommendation. a mandatory level ".

Between the skyscraper in via Antonini and the Grenfell Tower in London, which caught fire quickly "there is a strong analogy - concludes Lucchini -. Fortunately, in the Milanese case there were no evacuation problems thanks to the probable compliance with the construction rules on compartmentalization who have avoided the flames from attacking the internal floors. In London, however, no and it was a tragedy ". 

"We were told that the panels that covered the building were fireproof, instead they burned quickly as if they were butter." So one of the condominiums in the building told Ansa. "The technicians will do a check, but I remember perfectly that they had said that the panels were fire resistant ". "We smelled smoke and immediately ran away, I didn't think it was so bad". This is the story of another tenant who escaped the flames. "The firefighters told me he would leave on the other side of my floor - continued the woman - where a boy lives who should have saved himself ".