Bergamo explosion, toll of displaced residents revised from 50 to 40

On October 6 Redazione Zero had reported the explosion in an apartment building in Bergamo, with a toll then indicated at 50 displaced residents. New details gathered by firefighters and police revise that number downward: the people left displaced number around 40, with twenty apartments declared unfit for habitation.

The explosion occurred on Monday evening on via Longo, in Bergamo’s Borgo Santa Caterina district. According to sources from the fire department and city police, nine people were injured in the incident, two of them seriously: a woman is hospitalized at the Niguarda hospital in Milan with burns covering 90% of her body, while her husband is hospitalized in Verona with burns covering 50% of his body.

The fire department’s investigations have allowed a first technical element regarding the dynamics of the explosion to be established: the gas pipe in the apartment involved was found detached, but with the butterfly valve closed. From this finding arises the hypothesis, currently the most credited according to sources, of an accidental gas leak that occurred during a repair job in the home.

The overall picture emerging today thus updates what was reported in previous days on two fronts: the number of displaced residents, revised from 50 to around 40, and the overall number of injured, which updated sources quantify at nine people, with specific detail on the burn percentages of the two most seriously injured victims and their respective places of hospitalization.

No further elements emerge, from the available excerpts, regarding the identity of the people involved beyond what has already been made public, nor indications on timing for residents to return to the apartments declared unfit for habitation. The hypothesis of an accidental gas leak during a repair job remains, for now, the one indicated by firefighters based on the finding of the detached pipe with the closed valve.