Fear in the night in the Vincenzo Bellini international airport. A fire hit the lower part of the airport. The flames were tamed by the firefighters at the end of an operation described as “delicate and demanding”. There are no serious injuries, just a few people intoxicated by smoke. Flights were suspended until at least 8am on Monday morning.
The first distress call came to the Fire Department’s Operations Room at 11:29pm. Firefighters and fire trucks arrived at the scene immediately. The fire was contained and extinguished by the fire brigade teams, who also intervened from the headquarters of the provincial command of Catania. But the air terminal, which was abandoned by those present in a hurry, was invaded by smoke.
“At one point they all started running away and shouting,” said a person present inside the airport contacted by the news site newsicilia.it. “Everyone was running away, pushing and crying. My first thought was that someone had pulled out a gun. Then he yells at her: ‘out, out, out’. We all went outside and in a short time a cloud of black smoke covered the structure, then the light went out».