Managers Italian emergency services ignored the first reports of avalanches in the hotel “Rugapiana” in the Italian province of Pescara. It is reported by Rai News.
As explained in regional administration, at the time of snow melt controllers had to take hundreds of calls from people from different areas asking for help, as shortly before this, the country has witnessed a series of earthquakes.
The Manager of the hotel a few hours before the tragedy sent an email in which he wrote about the threat environment. In particular, the Manager pointed out that the building no one can get out from behind the two-meter drifts, the fuel for the diesel generator remains only for a day, the phone connection is broken.
He said that on their own — with the help of shovels and small snow blower was able to clear a small area in front of the building, however the roads are blocked with snow. In this regard, the Manager was requested to provide emergency aid and evacuate the guests.
In these circumstances the Italian prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation. Law enforcement agencies also have to figure out how the hotel conformed to the technical safety requirements and was not whether it direction at avalanche.
Avalanche has covered “Rugapiana” on January 18. At this point the hotel was 40 people. During the rescue operation discovered bodies of seven dead, 10 people managed to extract from the rubble alive. The rest of the hotel guests are still missing. The cause of the collapse of the snow was a series of tremors that occurred in the area of the mountain massif of Gran Sasso d’italia. Three earthquakes of magnitudes ranging from 5.3 to 5.5 was recorded on the same day in the morning.