The tragedy of Rigopiano is an indelible stain in a karst basin on the slopes of the mountains bordered by the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park – a territory kissed by the sun, made shimmering by the rain, shaped by the snow and colorful in the mid-seasons. An oasis of peace for nature lovers and for hikers who, weary from the mountain, seek shelter. Born as an alpine refuge in 1958, the Rigopiano Hotel has undergone a profound transformation to become a famous luxury resort , with outdoor swimming pools and a spa. Pride of mountain tourism in Abruzzo.
It is January 18, 2017, it has been snowing for days and nobody – absolutely nobody – imagines the unimaginable. It is not a day like many others. Rigopiano is disturbed by bad weather and major earthquakes. Natural phenomena that exasperate the spirits of guests who hope to return home as soon as possible. The road is blocked by snow and resignation follows the euphoria. The mocking wait for a snowplow turbine, which arrives too late, and interrupted by an avalanche that engulfs the Hotel Rigopiano . From Monte Siella the avalanche, with a front seven meters high of snow mixed with ice and beech trees uprooted from the wood, descends along the Grava di Valle Bruciata and hits the structure, cutting it, making the pillars explode and raising the floors. The hotel accommodates 40 people: 28 guests, including 4 children, and 12 employees: only eleven survive .
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The 29 victims of the Rigopiano Avalanche
Die under the rubble (from left): Jessica Tinari (24), Marinella Colangeli (32), managed the hotel spa, Roberto Del Rosso, owner and manager of the 53-year-old Rigopiano hotel, Cecilia Martella (24), Ilaria Di Biase (22), working as a cook, Piero Di Pietro (54), Marco Vagnarelli (44) and Paola Tomassini (46), Alessandro Riccetti (33), Luciano Caporale (54) and Silvana Angelucci (46), Stefano Feniello ( 28), Marco Tanda (25), Marina Serraiocco (38) and Domenico Di Michelangelo (41), Emanuele Bonifazi (31), Luana Biferi (30), Sara Angelozzi (40) and Claudio Baldini (40), Linda Salzetta (31) ), Gabriele D’Angelo (32), Nadia Acconciamessa (47), Alessandro Giancaterino (42), Valentina Cicioni (33 years), Dame Faye (42), Foresta Tobia (59) and Bianca Iudicone (50), Sebastiano Di Carlo (49), Rosa Barbara Nobilio (51).
Rainews.it
The Rigopiano hotel was located 8.9 km from the center of Farindola, connected by a stretch of road that leads from 530 meters above sea level to 1200 meters. One hour and 20 minutes on foot, twenty minutes by car. Snow permitting
In Rigopiano it has been snowing for days and guests reach the hotel with difficulty , slowed down by a wave of snow never seen before. Even in Farindola, 530 meters above sea level, the situation is complicated and traffic has slowed down considerably. The mayor decides to close the schools.
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Heavy snow in the town of Farindola
In the direction of Rigopiano, however, the road is interrupted in several points and the last stretch is guaranteed by a lane as wide as the snowplow. The police coordinate the cars – and the mayor of Farindola is also present – and escort customers to their destination. Many have reserved a room since January 17, 2017.
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The road is already complex well before reaching Farindola
The heroic exploits to reach the Rigopiano hotel are documented with video, audio and messages exchanged via WhatsApp. “Fatigue” repaid by moments of relaxation in the spa and by the tasty dishes offered by the hotel restaurant. All around there are still Christmas decorations to mark the time that passes slowly in Rigopiano. Also theretelephone line is almost absent and the internet connection (via satellite dish) is the most powerful way to communicate with the outside world. The snow does not slow down and in a few hours even the last parked cars are no longer distinguishable – buried under a blanket of snow. The images transmitted by the Abruzzo broadcaster Rete 8 recorded in the days preceding the tragedy are eloquent.
On January 18, 2017 the serenity of the guests is disturbed, already at breakfast, by the endless snowfall and the wall of snow on the provincial road which, in fact, does not allow anyone to leave the hotel. A snow blower is expected. The situation, however, degenerates. At 10.25 a shock of magnitude 5.1terrifies those present. Restless, someone and in panic, customers pack their bags to leave. Not long passes and at 11.24 another earthquake of magnitude 5.4 creates confusion and disorientation.
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A view of the Gran Sasso after the earthquake
The requests for help have been incessant since the morning, the situation is serious and the amount of snow that has fallen creates a worrying scenario for the locals too. Phone calls from customers to relatives via WhatsApp, made public later, testify to palpable agitation. Clean the cars, and arranged in single file on the avenue of the hotel, everyone is ready to leave Rigopiano.
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The cars of the guests lined up along the avenue of the hotel (18 January 2017)
In particular Gabriele D’Angelo, a waiter of the Rigopiano , with a past in 118, who died in the tragedy, at 11.38 on 18 January, contact the Rescue Coordination Center of the prefecture of Pescara and asks for the preventive evacuation of the hotel (it makes more attempts during the day – subject of investigation). Roberto Del Rosso’s sister, who died in the tragedy, goes personally to the Province to ask for help. The snow blower , however, does not arrive and the hotel administration offers a buffet lunch to entertain guests. The wait is again troubled by two shocks. Children cry, some frightened customers scream. They are desperate. Others ask for chamomile tea to calm down. And the last act before the tragedy.
Ansa According to data from the Forestry Carabinieri of the
Meteomont
service, the force exerted by the avalanche is equal to 4 thousand fully loaded trucks and in the accumulation area on the hotel the weight is 120 thousand tons . guests are almost all gathered in the lobby, wearing ski suits. Some children are in the pool room. It is the survivors who remember those moments: “I felt a growing wind and suddenly: bu, bu, bu, bu, buuu”, the testimony of Giampaolo Matrone who lost his wife Valentina in Rigopiano gives goosebumps.In a few seconds the avalanche overwhelms everything . A mixture of snow and trees bury the Rigopiano hotel. Dark.
Images of the Fire Brigade; Music Lights Writing, Milky Blue (License: Creative Commons)
The first to come out of the rubble and Fabio Salzetta , the maintenance man of the hotel, is in a boiler room and with a hammer breaks a grate and is out. The cook Giampiero Parete calls, shouts and answers , on vacation with his family, who went out shortly before the avalanche to reach the car. Wall is greatly disoriented that he no longer understands which is the entrance to the hotel, under the rubble there are his wife and children. The two after repeated attempts manage to talk to 118. They warn of the collapse but the line is disturbed. The control panel tries to call that number many times but the phone does not pick up. Wall, in the car with Salzetta, to shelter from the blizzard and the prohibitive cold, try to call his employer via WhatsApp: the restaurateur of Isola Felice, in Silvi Marina, Quintino Marcella. It’s 5:08 pm , Marcella picks up the roll call and starts a barrage of phone calls from both the landline and the cell phone to 112, 113, 117, 118.
I kept calling because no one believed me.
Quintino Marcella
It doesn’t go long, Marcella calls Parete back and confesses embittered: “They don’t believe me.” It’s just after 6pm and the restaurateur insists again enough to be put in contact with theoperations room of the Prefecture . He qualifies and explains the situation once again following his friend’s words. But after a few minutes the phone call is at the crossroads and the final answer freezes him. “All right, there is no collapse. Two hours ago we spoke to the director of the Rigopiano hotel ”. The official’s reference is to the phone call between the Pescara Operations Center and the administrator of the Hotel Rigopiano , Bruno Di Tommaso, who is not on site. (Di Tommaso and asked about the collapse of the hotel shortly after the phone call from Salzetta and Parete to 118).
Follows the proverb pronounced by the official of the Prefecture who liquidates Marcella. “ The mother of idiots is always pregnant”, Convinced that the news of the collapse of the Rigopiano hotel is only a joke in bad taste.
Professor Marcella is desperate and calls Massimo D’Alessio, a volunteer of the Civil Protection. D’Alessio collects the information and in turn turns to Fabio Pellegrini, ski mountaineering instructor. The confirmations, however, do not arrive and at 19.24 D’Alessio calls the Prefecture to make sure. The answer is, again, negative: “Still with this story is a hoax”. D’Alessio calls Marcella back and gets the Muro number. While D’Alessio presses the Prefecture, his wife manages to contact the cook. At that moment the truth of the facts is ascertained. The rescue machine sets in motion. It is around 7:30 pm, two and a half hours after the collapse. At the roll call there are 30 people from the Alpine Rescue, the Guardia di Finanza, and the Fire Brigade. The roads are cut off and the turbine is slow to arrive. At 9.47 pm D’Alessio and Parete write to each other again: “Help has arrived
” and Parete replies: “No”. Little is missing, says D’Alessio. Muro’s phone battery is almost flat and the chef asks to communicate via messaging only. An hour passes and at 10:53 pm D’Alessio keeps contact alive. Muro replies: “We are at the entrance to the parking lot”, “They have arrived
” asks D’Alessio. Wall responds at 10.59pm: “No”. The chef’s phone is now dead and communications are interrupted a few minutes after 11pm .
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Rescue cars in the column try to reach the Rigopiano hotel
The turbine is leading the way for the rescuers trudging behind. But the stretch is long, you advance too slowly. Everyone knows that when there is an avalanche the time factor can make a difference . So at 2 o’clock a group of rescuers detaches from the rescue column and continues on skis. Sealskins are needed to move uphill. About ten people set off and brave the cold, strong wind and snow. Pellegrini and crucial to understand the direction to follow.
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Rescuers on skis
Alongside the two who escaped the avalanche are the mascots Lupo and Nuvola, Abruzzese shepherds who were unharmed and awaiting their three puppies. All around there is silence. Rescuers on skis only arrive at 4.30 the following day. And on January 19, 2017 when they find the two survivors Salzetta and Parete .
The meeting is moving. Relative and strongly shaken, with her hands she holds the handbag of his daughter found in the car. The rescuers decide to carry him down on a stretcher and, forced, he entrusts the backpack to one of them: “Don’t lose her and all I have left of her”. Salzetta, on the other hand, remains: among the rubble there is his sister.
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The devastation seen from inside the Rigopiano hotel
The fire brigade helicopter, hampered by adverse conditions, arrives on site at 7 am . 9 of them descend about 300 meters from the goal and with the snow up to their chest they reach what remains of the Hotel Rigopiano.
“We were out of breath,” says one of them. Instead of finding a massive pile of rubble – considering the different floors of the hotel – there is nothing. “We don’t know where to start”. The biggest difficulty, in fact, is figuring out where to start searching. Access from the spa turns out to be easy, but the attempt with canine units fails. The arrival of the other rescue units follows.
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The mobile rescue column.
The probes stuck in the snow, used to identify the structure of the building, touch the trees and repeatedly confuse the rescuers who dig without finding anything. Salzetta and resolutive. The maintenance man of the hotel knows the floor plan perfectly. He advises and directs the fighters to the hall. Meanwhile, time passes and the first team leaves at one o’clock the next day and then returns at 6 in the morning. Salzetta, together with the Fire Brigade, continues to search for the entrance hall. Among the difficulties he identifies the perimeter walls of the hotel – displaced by the force of the avalanche of about 10 meters. The first penetration is not successful, the rescuers move two meters and from the roof they are able to enter. The firefighter Mauro Cavallo, honored Knight of the Republic, slips and goes down for several meters. He finds a crack and calls (call out), after a while he hears a voice. He asks for silence outside and calls even louder. The voice responds louder. And the turning point. To reply and Adriana, wife of the cook Parete. The Fire Brigade opens the gate. It is 8.30 on Thursday 20 January when Gianfilippo leaves, Adriana comes out after her son.
Parete’s daughter, Ludovica, and still below. Salzetta is again essential to find the others. She explains how to get to the children, who were buried in the billiard room. Excavation continues but the tunnel is too narrow. The brigade choose the smallest from among them. Called into question, Fabrizio Cataudella goes deep without hesitation and digs, digs in the snow, until he reaches the room. It is 7.30 pm on January 20 when three children are found who have remained in the dark for over 50 hours . Among them is Parete’s daughter, Ludovica. During the night, three other survivors of the Rigopiano tragedy are found: Francesca Bronzi, Giorgia Galassi and Vincenzo Forti. The three fought thirst by wetting their lips with dirty snow.
The most complex intervention takes place almost at dawn. Giampaolo Matrone is wedged under an attic. He is the last of the survivors and he is very thirsty. He continually asks the rescuers for water. To get it out, the Fire Brigade broke several chainsaws and were forced to work with the blade a few centimeters from the face. 62 hours after the Rigopiano avalanche, Matrone is safe despite evident arm problems (he will have to face numerous surgeries). After a few hours, the discovery of the three Abruzzese shepherd puppies, sons of Lupo and Nuvola, still gives the rescuers hope.
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The discovery of the three puppies
Unfortunately, however, there is nothing to be done for the missing. Salzetta stays in Rigopiano for five daysuntil rescuers find Linda’s lifeless body on her sister’s birthday. Destroyed, she leaves Rigopiano.
