Intervention by the fire brigade and 118 paramedics yesterday evening 30 November, in the church of San Bartolomeo in Pergo, in the municipality of Cortona (Arezzo), due to carbon monoxide fumes given off by two gas heaters in one of the rooms where a catechism event was taking place with 17 people. The 84-year-old priest and a 52-year-old woman were transported in yellow code to the hospital following fainting and malaise.
The other participants, according to what was explained, instead returned to their homes, free to go to the emergency room if any symptoms appeared. The firefighters shut down the heating system and ventilated the premises. The priest and the 52-year-old were transported first to the Fratta hospital and then transferred to the Careggi polyclinic in Florence.
Don Benito Chiarabolli, the priest of the parish of Pergo in Cortona (Arezzo) who was intoxicated by carbon monoxide during a catechism event in the church of San Bartolomeo in Pergo in which he participated with 16 other people, is now hospitalized in a hyperbaric chamber in Florence. The religious, who celebrated 60 years of priesthood last year, is much loved in the Cortona area where he was born 84 years ago.
Don Benito, around 11pm yesterday, began to feel unwell and only the readiness of some participants made it possible to immediately call for help and the fire brigade and avoid the worst. The environments have been completely sanitized. The 52-year-old who had been transported to Florence together with the priest has instead already been discharged. There are no other hospitalized among the other participants in the evening.