Specialist search and rescue teams, underwater divers, cave experts and surveyors were searching Wednesday for four workers missing a day after an explosion at a hydroelectric plant near the northern Italian city of Bologna killed at least three people and injured five others.
“It’s a complicated situation,” said Luca Cari, a spokesman for the Italian firefighters. The explosion occurred at the level of the factory that was underwater, and Mr. Cari said divers worked Wednesday in “zero visibility” conditions as they searched through rubble and debris from the blast, moving sheet metal by hand with difficulty. .
The explosion at the Enel Green Power plant occurred as the company was testing efficiency improvements made to the facility, which generates power from the water of a nearby dam basin.
The incident and the resulting deaths and injuries prompted unions to call for a general strike to protest dangerous working conditions and work-related deaths. Political leaders, in both the center-right government and the opposition, rushed to the site of the factory, about 43 miles south of Bologna.
Prosecutors in Bologna said Wednesday they would launch an investigation into the possible causes of the blast. Enel Green Power said in a statement that it “will continue to cooperate fully with the relevant authorities to ascertain the facts”.
The explosion on Tuesday caused part of the 10-story underground structure to collapse, flooding several levels, which limited rescue efforts. The explosion occurred eight stories below ground, and smoke and high temperatures from an ensuing fire were also initially a challenge for emergency workers, said Mr. Cari, the fire spokesman.
The plant was undergoing what the company described in a press release as “efficiency runs” to bring it up to date. Work started in September 2022 and Enel Green Power said it used contractors known to be experts in the field. The workers killed and injured in the explosion were conducting final tests on the plant’s two power units. One module has been successfully tested in recent weeks. The explosion occurred when testing of the second unit “was in progress,” the company said.
“The work being done here can only be done by specialists,” Salvatore Bernabeye, chief executive of Enel Green Power, told reporters in a video interview broadcast by Sky News Italia. “We have selected the most reputable companies that perform this type of work,” he added.
Michele Bulgarelli, president of the Bologna branch of the CGIL union, described the incident as the “worst massacre of workers” in the region in recent memory. He criticized Enel Green Power for a “lack of transparency”, saying the company had not shared with the unions the names and roles of the people involved in the accident.
“Yesterday we were disappointed. today we are angry,” he added.
The hydroelectric plant is the most powerful in Emilia Romagna, one of Italy’s most industrious regions. Built in 1975, it is managed by Enel Green Power, the renewable energy arm of the Enel Group. The company said the dam’s basin at Lake Suviana, an artificial lake formed by the dam’s construction in 1928-32, had not been damaged and was considered safe. “There was no impact on local and national electricity supply,” the company said.
PierPaolo Bombardieri, national secretary of the Uil union, said in a statement on Wednesday that in 2022, local representatives of his union “raised some safety issues for this facility.” He added that the union was available to give investigators “information and documentation about the case.”
Unions in Emilia Romagna have announced that in that region, a four-hour nationwide strike already planned for Thursday will be extended to eight hours, involving both the private and public sectors, in protest at deaths related to the job.
According to Inail, the National Institute of Occupational Accident Insurance, which monitors occupational accidents and deaths, there were more than 1,000 work-related deaths in Italy in 2023.
Matteo Lepore, the mayor of Bologna, the capital of the Emilia Romagna region, called on residents to join the trade union march through the city center on Thursday morning. “We need a big demonstration to say enough to the work-related deaths and to be close to the colleagues and families” of the workers involved in the blast, he said, adding, “we have to be there tomorrow.”
The accident also drew lawmakers—both local and national—to the scene.
“Another massacre of workers, we can no longer accept that this is happening, we have to make workplace safety the priority in this country,” said Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, who spoke to reporters at the venue of Wednesday’s accident. He described it as “a huge tragedy”.
On this occasion, he saw the Minister of Labor of Italy, Marina Elvira Calderone, who also traveled to the factory.
“We need to invest in a safety culture,” the minister said, adding that laws are in place and others are in the works.
