Five people died, 12 workers are in hospital and there is also an unknown number of missing people. An enormous explosion in a power plant in Connecticut generated fear and victims in Middletown, Connecticut’s “Little Sicily”.

“We don’t know how many workers there were in the power plant when the site exploded”, this is what the mayor Sebastian Giuliano said at the end of a difficult day which saw the number of victims increase to 50, a number which then went radically down. The effects of the explosion were heard in the whole region. Peter Moore, who lives in Durham, 15 kilometres from the plant, thought it was an earthquake. Lynn Townsend described flames and the black smoke. Steve Clark thought that a tree had fallen on the roof of his house. The head of the firemen, Al Santostefano, said they are still looking for people in the debris. There were about 200 workers in the power plant when the site exploded, 51 in the middle of the explosion provoked by a gas leak.

The power plant, which is located on the Connecticut river, near the Wesleyan University, one of the best of the United States, cost one billion dollars. The main partner of the project, former town councillor William Corvo, is Max Corvo’s son, former Oss agent and one of the main characters in the landing in Sicily. In Middletown, half an hour from Hartford, there is a large Italian community. Many people, like the Corvo family, come from a town which has a partnership with Melilli, near Syracuse, in Sicily. The Italian Foreign Office and the Consulate are in contact with Washington, with the police of Connecticut and with the vice-governor Michael Fedele to monitor the situation and ascertain if there are any Italian victims. Governor Jodi Rell also arrived in Middletown after having spoken with mayor Sebastian Giuliano.  
 

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute