- Title: Father of missing avalanche victim expresses anger and despair
- Date: 23rd January 2017
- Summary: PESCARA, ITALY (JANUARY 20, 2017) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS LINED UP OUTSIDE HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF ALESSIO FENIELLO, FATHER OF MISSING AVALANCHE VICTIM STEFANO FENIELLO, OUTSIDE HOSPITAL JOURNALISTS WAITING (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ALESSIO FENIELLO, FATHER OF MISSING AVALANCHE VICTIM STEFANO FENIELLO, SAYING: "I don't give a damn about the Italian authorities, because when my son called at 13:30 and told me that they had dug their car out from the snow and put the snow chains on and were ready to return home, and then at around 15:00 he called my wife and said, 'Mummy maybe we can't get back because the shits who were supposed to clear the roads couldn't be bothered to turn up. Then the other evening, they (authorities) gave me the news, they read out five names of survivors, including my son's name." FENIELLO SPEAKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ALESSIO FENIELLO, FATHER OF MISSING AVALANCHE VICTIM STEFANO FENIELLO, SAYING: "The prefect and the president of Abruzzo region, together with a police representative, if I am not mistaken, there were three of them, came to the hospital lobby with great arrogance saying they were the only ones giving out the facts and what the others say is unconfirmed information. With this arrogance, he read out the names of survivors. As soon as I heard my son's name, I fell on the floor, that's normal, right? I just collapsed." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ALESSIO FENIELLO, FATHER OF MISSING AVALANCHE VICTIM STEFANO FENIELLO, SAYING: "In the morning, we came to the hospital and waited for the ambulances. Three ambulances arrived. In one of them was the girlfriend of my son. A fourth ambulance arrived carrying an injured person. We expected a fifth ambulance to arrive, but it never did. I waited until the afternoon for someone to come and tell me, 'Look we made a mistake, we gave a wrong name, that person can't be found.' Yesterday I spoke with my son's girlfriend. She said to me that when it happened they were sitting near the fireplace, on the sofas, and the impact threw them by the fireplace. After that, when it calmed down, using the torch on her mobile phone, as long as her battery lasted, she could see the arm of my son, she is convinced it is him because she could see the watch she had given him .... (Feniello chokes up). She called out to him, but he didn't answer and she could hear him grunting in pain." FENIELLO MOBBED BY MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ALESSIO FENIELLO, FATHER OF MISSING AVALANCHE VICTIM STEFANO FENIELLO, SAYING: "When the rescue workers arrived, I asked her, 'Did the rescuers go down?' She said that when she was asked to get closer to the opening the rescuers did not go down, take note. They made another opening where the other couple was and got them out through that opening and asked her to go to that opening instead. She had to crawl over to get there. Seems like she got to where the other couple was and that's where they go her out. As she got out, she said, 'My boyfriend is still down there.' This is what she has told me. So I asked the rescuers, 'Did you go down to find the fifth person?' Initially the rescuer was vague and I had to ask again and the rescuer said, 'I don't know.' I presume that that person the girlfriend says is my son, is still under there. If there was a thread of hope to rescue that person, there isn't any hope anymore." FENIELLO SPEAKING LEAVING
- Embargoed: 6th February 2017 12:09
- Keywords: avalanche earthquake missing Italy rescue Pescara Farindola hotel Alessio Feniello Stefano Feniello
- Location: PESCARA, ITALY
- City: PESCARA, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
- Reuters ID: LVA00160AXKJR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The father of an avalanche victim that is still missing expressed his anguish and despair on Monday (January 23) after he said he was wrongly told his son had been rescued from the rubble of a mountain hotel covered by a tsunami of snow.
Alessio Feniello said he was told on Friday (January 20) his son Stefano, 28, had been rescued by emergency services from the Rigopiano Hotel where he was staying with his girlfriend Francesca Bronzi, 25, who is recovering at Pescara hospital, but his son never arrived amongst those who were rescued.
"In the morning, we came to the hospital and waited for the ambulances. Three ambulances arrived. In one of them was the girlfriend of my son. A fourth ambulance arrived carrying an injured person. We expected a fifth ambulance to arrive, but it never did," Feniello said.
He said Bronzi had spotted his son's arm under the rubble using the light of her mobile phone and had heard Stefano grunt in pain.
When rescue workers located the survivors they asked Bronzi to move to the opening they had dug, but never went down to check if there were other survivors under the rubble, Feniello said.
"If there was a thread of hope to rescue that person, there isn't any hope anymore," Feniello said.
Italy's emergency services have been working around the clock since they arrived at the site of the hotel on Thursday (January 19) after the avalanche destroyed the place on Wednesday (January 18).
A total of nine people, including four children, have been pulled out alive from the rubble. Six people have been pronounced dead after the fire services confirmed in a tweet they had found a body under the rubble on Sunday (January 22).
Police said they found one of the survivors and three of the victims in the dark by tracing their mobile phone signals.
All nine survivors are in a good condition in hospital in Pescara, and only one required surgery, hospital director Rossano Di Luzio said. Some, including the four children, will be discharged on Monday, the hospital said.
Prosecutors in Pescara have opened a probe over alleged unintentional multiple manslaughter and negligence causing a large-scale disaster.
The avalanche came hours after a series of tremors struck the area, which was devastated by deadly quakes last year, and had been grappling with heavy snowfall. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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