A family-run fireworks plant in central Italy has been struck by disaster again, after an explosion ripped through the site and killed a mother and her son — the second deadly blast there in just three years, according to firefighters and a local prosecutor.
The victims’ bodies “were found in the remains” of the factory in Torano di Borgorose, about 70km northeast of Rome, a spokesperson for the fire brigade said.
The prosecutor for Rieti province, quoted by news agency ANSA, identified the dead as Simone Colle, a 30-year-old employee at the facility, and his 60-year-old mother, Teresa Tozzi.
The tragedy echoes a July 2023 explosion at the same factory that killed Mr Colle’s uncle, Franco Colle, along with Franco’s two children, Anna and Claudio.
Photographs released by the fire brigade showed the building reduced to rubble, with the structure appearing completely destroyed.
Two other employees survived the blast, firefighters told AFP, though they did not provide details about their condition.
The factory’s safety record has been under scrutiny before. After the 2023 explosion, the company’s owners, Fabrizio and Gaetano Mattei, were sentenced to four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, storing explosive material at an unauthorised site and labour law violations.
Despite that case, the company later restarted fireworks production after obtaining a new licence.
“Given the gravity of this tragedy, we cannot accept the argument that this was just a matter of fate,” the local union CGIL said in a statement.
“It is essential to fully bring to light the causes of this explosion, to quickly determine all those responsible and to verify down to the last detail whether all health and safety rules were followed,” the union added.
The Mattei name has been linked to another catastrophe in the same industry: a different Mattei factory exploded in 1983, killing six people, including three members of the owners’ family.
