A video shows that the fire at the waste processing plant in Rome is not malicious. In the frames, the flames can be seen blazing while a truck unloads fuel derived from waste (Cdr) into a pit of the Malgrotta Mechanical Biological Treatment (Tmb) facility. The material was acquired by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but the first suspicions already arise. The hypotheses, all to be verified, are that the safety protocols have not been respected
during the unloading phases and that the fire-fighting systems are not functioning.
Now the prosecutors just have to listen to the judicial administrator of the Luigi Palumbo plant, appointed by themselves after the Tmb was seized from the owner, the E. Giovi company controlled by the well-known waste entrepreneur Manlio Cerroni, in July 2018. What is certain is that the flames broke out just before 6pm on Wednesday in the storage tank of the CDR, extending rapidly to the Tmb itself. 70 firefighters with 12 vehicles intervened on the spot.
It took hours to put out the flames. But the damage was now done.
The fire – similar to those that also took place in Rome in the waste plants of Salario, in 2018, and Rocca Cencia, in 2019 – put out of use a strategic treatment facility, which processes 900 tons of garbage every day. Yesterday afternoon a summit was held in the Prefecture, which was also attended by the governor Nicola Zingaretti and the mayor of Rome Roberto Gualteri, who declared that the current plants are not enough and that by July there will be a new waste plan. Therefore, a way out will have to be found to avoid the «risk
of a new garbage emergency for the capital ”, as the president of the Brothers of Italy Giorgia Meloni said.
The problems, however, multiply. Yesterday from the Tmb of Malagrotta a column of dense smoke rose, full of dioxin and combustion dust, which invaded the skies of the western quadrant of the capital, investing the territory of Fiumicino. The mayor Gualtieri has passed the ordinance n. 98, arranging for the closure of schools for 48 hours within a radius of 6 kilometers from the plant. A precautionary decision also accompanied by the ban on the consumption of animal and vegetable foods produced in the area and the ban on grazing and the use of fodder and cereals collected in the area and intended for animals. Coldiretti Lazio has launched a “sos companies”. What is worrying are the economic repercussions for all those agricultural enterprises, numerous, which operate in that area. In particular, it calls for immediate refreshments at a time of particular difficulty for farmers, already struggling with multiple problems ranging from the consequences caused by the pandemic, to the increase in the costs of raw materials, to expensive fuel, drought and swine fever.