Viareggio 10 years later, between sentence and wall of colors Street art

A new sentence and a wall to paint are the new elements with which Viareggio is preparing to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the railway massacre that on 29 June 2009 devastated it with a violent fire that overtook the tracks, entered homes and killed 32 people. The sentence is the one of appeal read today in Florence and which follows a long judicial affair patiently followed by the relatives of the victims. The wall is what these days is starting to be decorated in via Ponchielli with graffiti, drawings or frescoes, a noble word used by those who, for a popular district, want to allude to the mural painting of churches and buildings. It is not just any wall and, perhaps, it is a symbol. That wall, protecting the neighborhood of Via Ponchielli, the epicenter of the disaster, is the fire barrier (or bumper) that the residents along the railway have been asking to be erected for years to protect their lives. Everyone in the city is convinced that, if it had already been there, it could have at least mitigated the consequences of the explosion of the LPG freight car that derailed due to a breakdown. The wall was then built and now, in these weeks, the authorities have decided to have it painted. In that area at 23.48pm on 29 June 2009 the fire from the explosion invaded Viareggio, destroying it as if it were a war front. The effects were similar to a bombing, the consequences analogous. There were victims, serious burns, destruction, heroism such as that of the freight train driver who, upon noticing the accident, kept his cool and pulled what remained of the train away from the station so that there would be no further explosions or worse consequences. The personal stories of the dead and survivors shocked public opinion. That of Leonardo Piagentini who was 8 years old, his mother Stefania Maccioni and his little brothers Luca and Lorenzo died while his father Marco survived the wounds and is now a point of reference for the victims' relatives. Or that of the Moroccan Ibitzen Ayad, who lost her parents and two brothers in the fire and was left alone in the world. Viareggio was a little Pompeii. Rosario Campo, 42, had returned on his scooter to retrieve his forgotten cell phone: the flames incinerated him in the road parallel to the railway, his body curled up in the driving position was mercifully covered by the rescuers' sheet. It appears she was the first victim. Another, Antonio Farnocchia, 51 years old, was heading to the bakery where he worked, he was walking along the walkway above the railway but the flames reached him at a height and incinerated him, he was even reported missing. When the fire hit, people came out of their houses and tried to escape into the streets. Many made it, but others were caught in the flames and killed. Today Terminetto is a redeveloped neighborhood and nearby the 'Casina dei ricordi' preserves the memory of the disaster. The walkway that connected the district to the historic center is no longer there, it was demolished, while the underpass that has been talked about for years, as an alternative, is still being requested by residents. What about freight trains? They still pass by houses but now they have to respect a maximum speed of 50 km/h.