ROME BUS TO FIRE

ROME BUS A FIRE Fear in the heart of Rome: an Atac bus suddenly caught fire in Via del Tritone. The road, very central and close to Palazzo Chigi, is blocked. The Minister of the Interior, Minniti, arrived on the spot, passing not far from where the violent fire occurred. According to some witnesses it would have felt a strong explosion and then a column of smoke that rose in the air. According to the first reconstruction at the origin of the fire there would have been a short circuit in the electric system of the vehicle.

It happened after 10, near the Rinascente. The car, a Mercedes Citaro of 2003, began to catch fire from the back. Only the readiness of the driver, who brought all the passengers down, avoided the worst: there were no injuries among the people who were traveling on the bus. Instead, a girl of about 25 years was injured in a shop in Via del Tritone. The young woman would leave the shop and would then be burned by the flames. He is hospitalized in yellow code at the San Giovanni hospital for burns.

The first attempts to extinguish the fire extinguishers with the driver were useless: the flames quickly devoured the rear part of the bus, which is part of the fleet of the Portonaccio garage. Strong disruption to traffic, since car traffic has been suspended. Blocked Via del Corso to the incoming vehicles from Piazza Venezia, a traffic deviated on Via Nazionale. At the scene of the fire two teams of firefighters with the help of tankers, the fire was extinguished in a few minutes.

Since the beginning of the year, it is the ninth bus to burn in Rome. Almost two a month. The roar was very violent and passersby started to escape. Then the flames. A thick blanket of smoke began to rise from the vehicle. There were other strong barrels heard but probably it was the tires that exploded.

The column of smoke has invaded the surrounding buildings and the police have also invited the inhabitants of the buildings that overlook the street not to open the windows. The facade of the building in front of which the vehicle has stopped is completely blackened. Atac announced that it had opened an internal investigation into the incident. And the Rome prosecutors also opened a file. The crime hypothesis, in the state, is that of 'negligent crime of damage', governed by article 449 of the penal code. The deputy prosecutor Nunzia D'Elia is waiting for an initial report from the fire department to reconstruct what happened. Just before noon the Mobility Councilor Linda Meleo arrived on the spot