Casoria – “They tell me that with my gesture I saved many lives, I'm happy about that, but last night I lost everything and I absolutely need help because I have practically nothing left.”
Domenico Ferraiuolo is the hero who prevented tragedy from occurring when a building collapsed in Casoria. He alerted the other residents of the building after verifying a major water leak in the basement. The fact that there were no casualties or injuries is partly—if not primarily—thanks to him.
But now he's left with nothing: "I'm unemployed and recently married," he says, "and I bought that house at the cost of enormous sacrifices on my part and that of my family. Basically, now I'm penniless."
Domenico is devastated: he recounts the hours leading up to the collapse. "We'd been hearing creaking noises for a couple of days and there were obvious cracks. I alerted the residents who were present, and we then decided to check the underground part of the building; there's a sort of cave located 20-25 meters below street level.
We hadn't even gotten inside when we noticed a huge waterfall coming out of a large pipe. We went back upstairs and invited anyone still inside to come downstairs. This was despite someone trying to reassure us about the building's solidity.
Domenico Ferraiuolo's life fell apart with that house. He looks at the building. "That's all that's left of my apartment," he says, pointing to the upper part of the building, "basically just the storage room. They tell me I saved many lives with my actions, I'm happy about that, but last night I lost everything and I absolutely need help because I have practically nothing left."
Last night, firefighters ordered the forced eviction of the 15 families living in the building on Via Cavour, amid protests.
This morning, many of those people thanked the firefighters "for saving them thanks to the correct and timely assessment carried out yesterday," the fire department announced. Experts will determine the cause of the collapse and monitor and secure the area of the building that collapsed this morning at 7:00 a.m., much to the despair of residents. Some nearby buildings were also evacuated as a precaution to allow for investigations.
"I'll die down here, but I'm not leaving. We've been saying for years that things aren't going well. That we have small signs, and now they've been waiting for this. It won't end like this. Now they have to fix everything and give us back our homes." Roberto Maida, who lives in one of the collapsed apartments in Casoria with his wife and children, doesn't hide his anger.
“Nothing works here. We've wasted a lifetime's worth of sacrifices. Last night they made us sleep on the streets. We were only allowed to stay in hotels if we had minors or people with medical conditions. It's a good thing we didn't go back. We'd have ended up like rats,” he concludes.
The response of the institutions
After the collapse at the site of the disasterAt the request of the Municipality of Casoria, which activated the Municipal Operations Center, resources and personnel from the Regional Civil Protection and the Campania Regional Emergency Management Agency (SMA) were dispatched to the scene to coordinate rescue and assistance. Specifically, 30 volunteers and three emergency psychologists supported residents.
Campania Regional Civil Protection Councilor Fiorella Zabatta, who is personally monitoring the situation in close collaboration with the mayor of Casoria and the regional Civil Protection Department, had already traveled to the site yesterday evening to monitor the recovery operations, interview the evacuated families, and coordinate the response with the municipal administration.
"In this situation, made even more complex by the building's collapse, our top priority is now the safety of residents and support for the families affected," said Councilor Zabatta. "The regional Civil Protection Department is ready to deploy all necessary resources. We are providing broader and more structured assistance to address the inconvenience to residents caused by the collapse. We will continue to update you on the progress of the work and the safety measures adopted," the councilor concluded.
The Municipality of Casoria has published a notice to families evicted following the collapse on Via Cavour to address the housing emergency. "Thanks to the activation of the Campania Region's Regional Fund to Combat the Housing Emergency," Casoria Mayor Raffaele Bene said, "an extraordinary measure has been implemented to guarantee immediate and temporary accommodation to families forced to leave their homes for safety reasons."
Bene thanks "the regional councilor for housing policies, Claudia Pecoraro, for her availability, the president of the Region, Roberto Fico, and the prefect of Naples, Michele Di Bari, who enabled the timely activation of this important support tool." "The aim of this initiative is to protect individuals and support families in this difficult time," assures the mayor of Casoria.
The Order of Architects raises the alarm.
"The collapse occurred in a building that had already been evacuated, after some residents reported creaking and unusual noises. But a Civil Protection system cannot rely solely on the preparedness of citizens," said Antonio Cerbone. adviser of the Order of Architects of Naples and Campania coordinator of the STN (National Technical Structure) of Civil Protection.
Casoria, like many Italian municipalities, has an Emergency Plan and a Civil Protection Plan. The problem isn't their formal existence, but their substantial invisibility. Plans locked away in a drawer, unknown to most of the population, never truly shared. An uncommunicated plan isn't a prevention tool: it's merely an administrative act.
I speak with the voice of someone who lives in this area as a citizen, but also with the responsibility of someone who works as a technician, as a councilor of the Order of Architects of Naples and as coordinator of the National Technical Unit for Campania. For years, I have been denouncing the poor communication of Civil Protection Plans. Initial analyses indicate that the cause of the collapse was a leak caused by a burst water main.
It's clear that scheduled routine maintenance could have drastically reduced the risk. This, he concludes, leads us to an uncomfortable but necessary question: how much do we really invest in prevention compared to what we spend after emergencies? Prevention can't be improvised, and it's not activated only when an emergency is plain for all to see. This time, things went well. But luck isn't public policy.
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