A man who set fire to his
farm building leading to an explosion that killed three firemen
last week confessed to doing it to get the insurance money at
the weekend.
Giovanni Vincenti was the owner of the farm building at
Quargnento near Alessandria.
There was supposed to be only an initially explosion to burn
down the building, he told police, but an error in the timer set
off five gas canisters after the firemen had arrived and were
trying to douse the blaze.
Vincenti denied an intention to kill.
An Alessandria prosecutor said Thursday that the farm
building explosion that killed the three firemen on Monday night
was intended to kill.
"Whoever did it, did it to kill," said Enrico Cieri of the
blast at Quargnento.
"It's clear that the incident was not due to a neighbours'
row, but it much more serious".
The condition of a Carabinieri police officer, Roberto
Borlengo, and two firefighters, Giuliano Dodero and Graziano
Luca Trombetta, who were injured in the blast is improving,
medical sources said Wednesday.
Three firefighters - Antonio Candido, Marco Triches and
Matteo Gastaldo - died in the explosion in Quargnento and an
investigation has been opened into the incident, which
prosecutors suspect was caused deliberately.
Borlengo, the Carabinieri officer, called the central station
to ask for help right after the blast saying, "be quick because
everything has collapsed here, we are dying".
Investigators initially looked into possible motives
including a family fight or an incident caused to get insurance
money.
Rudimentary primers and wires connected to gas canisters that
did not explode were found in the building where the blast took
place, investigative sources said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
