Gas leak explosion in Bergamo, building declared unsafe and 50 evacuated

About fifty people had to leave their homes following the blast that occurred at 7.30pm on Via Longo in Bergamo. Those evacuated were taken in by relatives or housed in hotel facilities made available by the municipality, while firefighters declared the building where the explosion took place unsafe for occupancy.

Police reconstructed that the blast originated in the kitchen of a ground-floor flat, where a husband and wife of Romanian origin were located, both seriously injured. They are, at present, the only people reported injured according to available sources.

An eyewitness, an employee at a nearby bar, described the moment of the explosion: “We heard a loud bang, like an earthquake.” The account conveys the force of the explosion felt throughout the neighbourhood, which required the immediate intervention of emergency services and the securing of the entire building.

Firefighters’ intervention focused first on checking the structural stability of the building, which was declared unsafe immediately after initial inspections. The municipality’s decision to provide hotel accommodation for the evacuees reflects the scale of the evacuation, which involved all fifty or so residents of the affected building, forced to find alternative accommodation for a period still to be determined.

The exact causes of the gas leak that triggered the explosion have yet to be established. Police have opened an investigation starting from the kitchen of the ground-floor flat, identified as the point of origin of the blast, while the two injured spouses remain hospitalised in what has been described as serious condition. The news currently comes from a single source (ANSA, based on the Bergamo police reconstruction); independent confirmation of the final number of injured and of the timeline for the evacuees’ return has not yet been obtained.