Latest news with #RobertoGualtieri
Canada News.Net
07-07-2025
- Canada News.Net
Rome gas station blast injures dozens, mayor credits rescue team
ROME, Italy: Quick thinking by emergency responders helped prevent greater devastation after a gas station explosion in southeastern Rome injured dozens of people on July 4. At least 40 people, including 11 police officers and one firefighter, were injured in the early morning blast, which sent flames and black smoke billowing into the sky. The explosion was powerful enough to be heard across the Italian capital shortly after 8 a.m., rattling nearby buildings and triggering evacuations. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said local police and firefighters responded immediately after receiving reports of a gas leak. Two explosions occurred after their arrival. "Local police immediately evacuated a sports center nearby, while other officers evacuated buildings on the other side of the gas station, avoiding a much more serious tragedy," Gualtieri said. Authorities said 24 residents were among the injured, including two in serious condition. They are being treated at Rome's Casilino hospital. None of the injuries to law enforcement or firefighters were life-threatening. Fifteen firefighting teams worked to control the blaze. Prosecutors have launched an investigation, focusing on a suspected gas leak during the unloading of liquefied petroleum gas. Police were praised for evacuating a nearby sports center moments after the first explosion. Several children were brought to safety just in time to avoid a second blast. "If it had happened, as I have already told everyone, half an hour later, it would have been a catastrophe," said Fabio Balzani, president of the sports center, noting the children's summer camp would have been underway by then. One resident, Barbara Belardinelli, described being caught in the second explosion after stepping outside with her daughter to investigate the noise. "As soon as we heard the second explosion, we were also hit by a ball of fire. I thought that a car near us exploded, and metal fragments were flying in the air," she said. "We felt the fire on the skin, the arm of my daughter is still red, it was horrible." Others said the blast felt like an earthquake, shattering windows and damaging homes in the surrounding area. Pope Leo XIV said he was praying for the victims of the explosion, calling it "in the heart of my Diocese." Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also expressed support. "Thanks to the rapidity and expertise shown in the first intervention to secure and close the affected area, and the speed of the rescue, it was possible to prevent this tragic event from having even more serious consequences," Meloni said.
Filipino Times
05-07-2025
- Filipino Times
UAE expresses solidarity with Italy following gas station explosion
The United Arab Emirates has expressed its solidarity with Italy following a powerful explosion at a gas station in Rome that injured at least 45 people. In a statement on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) conveyed the country's support for the Italian people and government and extended wishes for the swift recovery of those injured in the incident. Italian authorities said the blast occurred Friday morning at a distributor of petrol, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the Prenestino district, a working-class area in eastern Rome. The explosion was heard across the capital. Among the injured were 12 police officers and six firefighters. Italian news agencies reported that two people remain in critical condition due to severe burns and are receiving ventilation support in local hospitals. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said the explosion was believed to have been caused by a gas leak during fuel-tank refilling operations, which then triggered a fire and the subsequent blast.
Observer
05-07-2025
- Observer
Dozens hurt in fuel station blast heard across Rome
ROME: A huge explosion at a petrol station in a Rome suburb on Friday injured nearly 30 people, two of them seriously and rattled windows across the Italian capital. The blast around 8:20am was preceded by a fire caused by a gas leak during refuelling, according to Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, who provided the toll of injured. Gualtieri visited the charred and smoking remains of the petrol and liquified natural gas (LNG) station and an adjacent sports centre in the Prenestino neighbourhood of eastern Rome. The explosion sent a fireball and thick black smoke into the air and was heard on the other side of Rome, shaking windows and causing some residents to worry that a bomb had gone off. "The explosion was really powerful. I felt my skin burning," Michele Secu, a 23-year-old who worked at the now-destroyed sports centre, said. Before the explosion, emergency services and police were called to investigate the gas leak and had evacuated the immediate area, including a children's summer camp. Police said 10 of their officers and one member of the fire service were injured, in addition to 16 civilians, two of whom were in a serious but not life-threatening condition. Fabio Balzani, head of the sports centre, said if the fire had occurred just a bit later it could have been disastrous, with 60 children expected at the camp and around 120 people booked to use the pool. "It would have been a massacre, a catastrophe," he said. Andrea Quattrocchi, the local chief of the Carabinieri police force, said the timely intervention of his team was crucial. "They extracted a person alive from a burning car," who was taken to hospital and is in a serious but stable condition, Quattrocchi told reporters. Witnesses said an ambulance exploded in the fire. Ennio Aquilino, regional director of the Lazio fire department, said the petrol station explosion was caused by a "BLEVE" — a boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion — of the liquefied natural gas. A BLEVE is caused by the rapid vaporisation of a pressurised liquid, normally when the vessel containing it is ruptured in some way. "The effect is as if a bomb has gone off," Aquilino told reporters. He said the first call to firefighters had been for a gas leak, then shortly afterwards came the explosion. He said they did not have time to stop it, only to clear the area. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was following the situation and offered her support for all those injured. — AFP
Euronews
05-07-2025
- Euronews
Rome petrol station explosion injures 25, damages buildings and cars
An explosion on Friday at a petrol and LPG station in the neighbourhood of Centocelle in Rome's southeast injured at least 25 people, according to authorities. According to initial information from the Rome fire brigade, the accident, which occurred at around 8:20 am, was caused by a technical fault during refuelling. None of the injured are in a serious condition, authorities said. Five people were reportedly hospitalised, all with minor burns and injuries caused by shattered glass from the explosion. The blast was heard in other parts of the Italian capital, with the plume of smoke visible across the city. According to the Agi news agency, the explosion was so violent that some people inside the flats near the petrol station were also injured. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said local police and firefighters rushed to the area after being alerted to a gas leak. Two explosions followed after they arrived, he added. Initially, 10 people were reported injured: eight police officers, a firefighter and an emergency operator, a number which Gualtieri later said reached around 20 before the toll was updated to 25. 'There were a few chain explosions after the first one,' Elisabetta Accardo, a spokesperson for the Roman police, told Italian state broadcaster RAI. 'All the policemen injured suffered burns, but they are not in danger of life.' The shock wave caused damage to some of the surrounding buildings and vehicles, which caught fire. The flames quickly spread to a law enforcement warehouse located behind the petrol station. The area was cordoned off to facilitate safety operations, with firefighters continuing to work to extinguish the blaze under challenging conditions, as Rome remains hit by an intense heatwave that has lasted for weeks. Residents interviewed by local media said the explosion was so loud and violent that it struck nearby buildings 'like an earthquake'. The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office is awaiting the initial reports from the fire brigade and the police to open an investigation file.
Herald Malaysia
05-07-2025
- Herald Malaysia
Pope Leo prays for those affected by gas explosion in Rome
Pope Leo XIV offers his prayers for his diocese following an explosion at a petrol station in Rome, which injured over 20 people, including several emergency responders. Jul 05, 2025 The explosion of a gas station in Rome (ANSA) VATICAN: Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for everyone involved in an explosion at a gas station in eastern Rome in a post in Italian on his X account (@Pontifex_it). Over 20 people were injured, including nine police officers, a firefighter, and a first responder, in the incident that occurred shortly after 8:15 AM on Friday, July 4. 'I pray for the people involved in the explosion at a gas station this morning in the Prenestino Labicano district, in the heart of my Diocese,' the Pope's post on X said. 'I continue to follow with concern the developments of this tragic incident.' The blast was heard in various neighborhoods across the city, and a large cloud of smoke was seen rising in the sky. The Pope reached out via social media to express concern and solidarity for his diocese, especially to the residents of the neighborhood affected. Five people were transported to the hospital According to preliminary reports from Rome's fire department, the explosion was allegedly caused by the detachment of a pipeline from a fuel tanker that was refilling the station. However, emergency services are still trying to determine the exact cause of the accident. The mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, travelled to the area to assess the situation. Firefighters were apparently already on the scene, as they were responding to a fire when the explosion occurred, injuring the emergency responders and damaging nearby buildings. At present, five people have apparently been transported to the hospital with minor burns and injuries from the glass blast. No one appears to be in life-threatening condition at the moment. A sports center nearby, Polisportiva Villa De Sanctis, which hosts a summer camp for children, was heavily damaged but luckily had been evacuated before the blast. "If it had happened an hour later, it would have been a massacre', the president of the center, Fabio Balzani, said. 'There would have been the 60 children from the summer center, us coordinators, and 120 people who booked the pool. The sports center is damaged; it looks like a battlefield."--Vatican News
