Who were the five workers who died in Casteldaccia, one after the other in the killer tank

One for all, all for one the workers who died in Casteldaccia. The testimonies of those who survived the tragedy are unanimous: they worked well together and death struck them one after the other while trying to help the colleagues who were trapped under the asphalt, narcotized and then killed by sewer gases. Epifanio Alsazia, 71 years old, also known as Fino, a father of a carabiniere, co-owner of Quadrifoglio group, the oldest in the team, was the first to go underground, recalls one of the survivors Paolo Sciortino, 36 years old, who entered last in the tank filled with sewage.

“He said he wanted to go. He was the first to go down into the plant. He could have enjoyed his retirement and yet he was always the first to intervene,” he says with tears in his eyes, remembering that he will become a father in less than two months. He will not see his two children, aged 5 and 1, and his twenty-year-old wife with a girlish face, on the other hand, Giuseppe La Barbera, 28 years old, the youngest of the group – and the only one from Palermo – of workers who were supposed to fix the sewers in that part of the national road on behalf of Amap. He did not work for Quadrifoglio group but was an interim worker, a young man who prayed every night for the “blessed” permanent employment by the Palermo water company. He heard a colleague screaming because three of them no longer showed signs of life and he rushed down the manhole and did not come back up.

A colleague, interim worker Giulio D’Asta, remembers him like this: “Peppino there are no words .. only a lot of anger and sadness. I remember the happiness on our faces the day we went to sign the work contract .. and now what remains? Life is unfair. I will never forget you.” Pino was originally from Ballarò, the heart of the Albergheria neighborhood market, where many people know and remember him because his family sells gas cylinders on Musco street and most of the houses in the neighborhood do not have methane and use gas in metal containers that is delivered to their homes. And until a few years ago it was Giuseppe himself who delivered the cylinders to those who requested them. And the noisy and musical market is silent to pay homage to one of its “sons”: Ballarò today had silent speakers and no merchant shouted to attract customers.

And the son of another victim, Ignazio Giordano, 57 years old, from Partinico, who works as a nurse, learned about the tragedy that happened to his father while he was at work at the Ingrassia hospital on Corso Calatafimi. Fabrizio, with his other two brothers Gaspare and Davide, says: “We want justice, we want to understand where this gas that killed our father came from. We know that he was among the last to go down into the manhole and that he tried to help the others. We do know that he died a hero.”

Roberto Raneri, 51 years old, from Alcamo, married with two children, was well known in the seaside town as one of the creators of the Alcamo carnival. He loved his family and especially his daughter Chiara, a singer in the church and a graduate of the Conservatory.

The last victim Giuseppe Miraglia, 47 years old, from San Cipirello, leaves behind his wife and his 10-year-old daughter for whom he was organizing the party for her first communion. He relieved his cousin, Giovanni D’Aleo, who survived along with Sciortino and Giuseppe Scavuzzo, went down the manhole and never came back up. Shortly before his death, he called his wife on the phone.

In the Palermo Polyclinic, Domenico Viola, 62 years old, also from Partinico, is fighting to live. All the workers who were at the labor union sit-in in front of the Palermo prefecture today are rooting for him: “Domenico will make it.”

In the photo, the victims of Casteldaccia, from left: Giuseppe La Barbera, Roberto Ranieri, and Ignazio Giordano.