There was a gas leak in a bicycle repair shop which alerted the neighbors. From the building came several phone calls to the firefighters, who sent a patrol of five people to the scene. One of them, according to a first reconstruction the most inexperienced, used a chainsaw to be able to open the door. It took a few seconds for the situation to turn into a disaster. The sparks from the tool unleashed a strong explosion, which involved four members of the team. Three people died in the explosion: two are the firefighters Giorgio Grammatico and Dario Ambiamonte. The third victim was inside the building: it is the seventy year old Giuseppe Longo, owner of the room where the gas leak occurred, who lived in the building. Two other firefighters, however, were hospitalized in serious condition in hospital. Unharmed but in shock, however, the fifth member of the team. He was taken to a 'protected' place, out of the spotlight. The bodies of his two dead colleagues were transported to the Vittorio Emanuele hospital, while the two injured are hospitalized at Garibaldi, where they are hospitalized on a confidential basis. Shortly after the explosion, the mayor of Catania Enzo Bianco also arrived in via Garibaldi. In the evening, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni phoned the mayor of Catania to express the government's closeness to the relatives of the victims and to the city.
