Avalanche accident in Farindola

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The hotel after and before the avalanche

During the avalanche accident in Farindola in the Gran Sasso massif of the Apennines , the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola , a municipality in the province of Pescara in the Italian region of Abruzzo , was destroyed on January 18, 2017 . 29 people were killed, nine people who were inside the hotel at the time of the accident could be rescued alive, and two people who were in the hotel car park were able to free themselves from the snow.

prehistory

Since the beginning of January 2017, a cold spell in Europe , especially in the Middle Apennines, has caused extraordinary snowfalls and snow depths, some of which are well over two meters. This meant that numerous smaller towns in mountain regions could no longer be reached by road. The heavy snowfall also led to power outages that lasted for days. On January 20, 2017, 45,000 people in the provinces of Teramo and Pescara were without electricity.

Hotel Rigopiano

The Hotel Rigopiano was located in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park near Farindola. It lay at 1200  m slm on a slope of Monte Tremoggia , which belongs to the Gran Sasso massif. It could be reached by a 10 km steep road from Farindola and was 700 meters from the provincial road SP 37, which connects Castelli with Campo Imperatore . The hotel was right at the exit of a wooded, but channel-shaped high valley. Steep, bare mountain slopes build up above this valley, on which massive amounts of fresh snow are deposited. As early as 1936, a huge avalanche had passed through this valley, which had also carried away debris and trees. At the beginning of the 1950s, a mountain hut was built on the rubble of that avalanche, which was expanded in 1972 and converted into a four-star hotel with a wellness area and indoor pool in 2007. It has since been operated by the Gran Sasso Ressort company. In 2008 the operator and some local politicians were charged with violating building law, which was rejected by the competent court in November 2008.

Avalanche

Landscape of the Gran Sasso massif

The highest avalanche warning level has been in effect in the entire region since Monday, January 16. However, this message did not reach the Farindola community for reasons that are not yet clear. The snow in the Gran Sasso massif with heights of up to five meters was very unstable. The area was not classified as avalanche prone. The amount of fresh snow, however, was very unstable. It is unclear whether the tremors on the same day at Lago di Campotosto, 40 km away, contributed to further instability. At the time of the avalanche, however, there were no noticeable aftershocks. In addition, there was 1.50 m of fresh snow on the night of January 18. This made the road to the hotel, which was still passable the day before, impassable.

Since the hotel could not be reached because of the snow-covered roads, a snowplow was requested on January 17th, which was finally confirmed for January 18th, 3pm, but actually never arrived. Due to the confirmation, the hotel guests gathered in the hotel lobby ready to leave. Most of the dead were found in the bar area. A total of 40 people stayed in the hotel, 28 hotel guests and 12 employees, including the hotel owner. 39 people were of Italian nationality, one employee was a Senegalese who had been living in Italy since 2009 .

At 5:25 p.m., an avalanche of dust , mixed with rubble and trees, hit the hotel and moved parts of it by up to ten meters. Most of the building was destroyed, most of the guests and hotel staff were buried. Two hotel guests who were in the parking lot at the time of the accident were uninjured and were able to free themselves from the snow. One of the two men called a friend at 5:40 pm to explain the situation. He then tried to sound the alarm via an emergency call . However, his 911 call was initially classified as a bad joke. The rescue operation was only started at 7:45 p.m.

Rescue operations

Since there were still no machines available for clearing snow, the first rescuers did not reach the scene of the accident on skis until 4:00 a.m. on January 19th. Helicopters came into action in the morning and flew out the two survivors who had been outside the hotel during the avalanche accident. By Saturday, January 21, nine people had been rescued from the rubble of the hotel, including all four missing children. The rescued were flown to Penne , where the operations center was set up, and from there to the hospital in Pescara . As of January 25, 29 dead had been recovered. Since there were no longer any missing persons, the rescue work was stopped that evening. The two hotel dogs were able to free themselves from the snow masses and bring them to safety. On Monday, January 23rd, her three pups were also found alive from the destroyed house.

Legal investigation

The Pescara Public Prosecutor's Office initiated investigations into negligent manslaughter, which mainly relate to the belated rescue measures.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abruzzo, ancora 45mila persone senza luce per la neve. In: TGcom24. Mediaset , January 20, 2017, accessed January 22, 2017 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Hotel Rigopiano al centro di un processo per abuso edilizio: ma tutti gli imputati Furono Assolti. In: Il Fatto Quotidiano . January 19, 2017, accessed January 22, 2017 (Italian).
  3. ↑ Pietro Lambertini: Hotel Rigopiano, quell'allarme valanghe mai arrivato a Farindola. In: Il Centro - Quotidiano d'Abruzzo. January 22, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2017 (Italian).
  4. ↑ Alberto Custodero: Il geologo "Il Rigopiano è in fondo a un Canalone, ma quella non era zona a rischio". In: La Repubblica . January 20, 2017, accessed January 22, 2017 (Italian).
  5. ↑ Jens Skapski: New strong earthquakes in central Italy - at least two fatalities. In: Juski's earthquake news. January 20, 2017, accessed January 12, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Giusi Fasano: Il Rigopiano ha restituito tutti i morti. In: Corriere della Sera . January 26, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017 (Italian).
  7. ↑ Il disastro di Rigopiano, ora che cosa è successo per ora. In: AGI . January 20, 2017, accessed January 22, 2017 (Italian).
  8. ↑ Emergency call apparently initially ignored. In: ORF . January 20, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Farindola Hotel Rigopiano: trovati tutti gli ultimi morti dispersi. In: Il Centro - Quotidiano d'Abruzzo. January 26, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017 (Italian).
  10. ↑ Rescuers find three puppies in the hotel rubble. www.stern.de, January 24, 2017, accessed January 25, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Hotel Rigopiano, la procura di Pescara "Indagine su struttura, valanga, viabilità e comunicazioni". In: Il Fatto Quotidiano . January 23, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017 (Italian).

Coordinates: 42 ° 25 ′ 52 ″  N , 13 ° 46 ′ 57.2 ″  E