Lorenzo Cubello was 37. Fabio Tosi was 34. Both were born in Bologna, and both died after an explosion at the Toyota Material Handling plant in the city’s Borgo Panigale area at about 5:20 p.m. on 23 October.
Eleven other people were hurt, one of them seriously. Ten were treated at Maggiore Hospital and other hospitals in the province, and their injuries were not considered life-threatening. One of the dead worker died at the scene. The other died after reaching Maggiore.
The blast brought down part of a warehouse. It was felt across much of the city. Investigators have ruled out anyone else being trapped under the rubble.
Early reports pointed to a compressor, specifically one inside an air conditioning system housing. The affected area is part of a logistics department that holds air conditioning units and a warehouse used by outside maintenance contractors. It is now under sequestration. Firefighters, led by Massimiliano Russo, deputy director of the Bologna Fire Department, inspected the site with the prosecutor’s office the next morning. The carabinieri and the Local Health Authority are also investigating, and they still have to establish whether the two men, both Toyota employees, died from the explosion itself or the collapse that followed.
A worker described the moment to the Italian press. “At the moment I thought it was an earthquake, the bang was too loud,” she said. People then thought a battery had blown. The power went out and everyone ran outside, she said, and staff were told there was a smell of gas. She works on the other side of the plant, “but the shock wave had moved us all”.
A strike already planned
Union delegates had called a two-hour safety strike for 24 October, the day after the blast. One worker said there were “always problems” at the plant, especially on line 1, and that people often got hurt.
Gian Pietro Montanari of Fiom-Cgil said: “This isn’t the worst company, but we need to verify if proper maintenance was conducted.” He recalled earlier strikes over safety, one of them over new tools workers wanted tested, and a previous fire in the paint shop.
Maurizio Landini, secretary of the CGIL, said Toyota was once a model company with zero accidents and deaths. “Today, we face an alarming rise in workplace accidents, with three fatalities a day in our country,” he said, adding that the tragedy showed a different approach to business was needed.
Bologna’s mayor, Matteo Lepore, called it “yet another workplace massacre”. Six months earlier, seven technicians had died at the Suviana hydroelectric plant, also near Bologna.
The plant makes forklifts and employs around 850 people. On the morning after, in the rain, more than 50 colleagues and friends gathered outside the gates, and flowers lined the outer wall. A colleague told journalists that one of the dead men leaves behind a partner who is expecting their child. The local health authority sent a psychologist to support the families and the shaken workers.
The metalworkers’ unions Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil called an eight-hour strike across the Bologna metropolitan area. There was to be no march, but companies would display mourning drapes. Fiom secretary Simone Selmi urged institutions, businesses and unions to work together on raising safety standards across the region.
Sources
- Toyota Explosion: "Like an Earthquake". Two Dead and 11 Injured, Today a Safety Strike Was Planned – L'Unione Sarda English
- Two dead and 11 injured after explosion at Toyota factory – Italy News
