Padua, 2 August 2022 – A fire broke out in the villa of Alex Zanardia Noventa Padovana. To catch fire – according to initial information from the brigade – it would have been the photovoltaic system and the flames would already have been extinguished.
Fear therefore for the former motoring champion who for two years has been forced to live attached to machinery due to a dramatic accident that occurred during a handbike race in the Sienese area: the fire broke out in his villa in the afternoon. The immediate intervention of Fire fighters he circumscribed the fire and prevented the flames from spreading to the house, a two-level structure.
The fire did not cause serious damage but sent the photovoltaic system into a tailspin and this could have jeopardized the machinery that helps Zanardi to live. In light of this situation, the former pilot’s family members opted, as a precaution, to transfer to a equipped medical center in Vicenza. Probably the same where Zanardi spent several months since the end of April 2021: the rehabilitation ward on the first floor of the San Bortolo hospital.
After the accident of 19 June 2020 Alex, who for years has been a symbol in sport for the handicapped by managing to win, in the para-cycling specialty, four gold medals at the London Games in 2012 and Rio in 2016, had undertaken a long rehabilitation path. In an interview about a year ago, his wife Daniela had stated that Zanardi was fighting “like a lion”. At Christmas, the former Formula 1 driver finally returned home.
“He is a fighter, but in this year and a half, with Covid, in the hospital and in the clinic we have been able to stay little, and few, close to him. Now returning to his family will do him good and will help him fight even more”, the woman explained.