The thick, black plume of smoke from the fire in the park of Centocelle, in eastern Rome, was visible in much of the center of the Italian capital on Saturday. Residents were asked to stay indoors and close their windows, and four apartment buildings were evacuated. The massive fire brigade got the flames under control, but the frequency of the fires, and especially the location, raise the eyebrows of the city council of Rome.
Roberto Gualtieri, the center-left mayor since last fall, does not want to prejudge the investigation launched by the Justice Department. But according to him it is already clear that most fires can be traced back to human involvement. The investigation must show whether this happened accidentally or deliberately.
In an interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera Gualtieri links this to the new waste policy. One of the promises in his campaign was a way out of the lingering waste crisis. For years, garbage containers have been bulging in the streets of Rome, and there has been a long political discussion about the construction of a large, new waste processing plant, where waste will be burned to produce electricity. Gualtieri emphasizes that this plant will be built, so that the capital no longer has to send its waste to other parts of Italy, and even Europe, for a lot of money, but can now process its own household waste itself.
Administrators in Rome are hinting that the modern and transparent waste policy that Gualtieri is working on is disrupting criminal balances in the Italian capital. Perhaps the fires are a reaction to that power disruption. “According to law enforcement, the waste processing chain is traditionally the most susceptible to infiltration by mafia groups,” Gualtieri adds.
Sabrina Alfonsi, alderman for waste and the environment, supports the mayor in an interview. According to her, several fires broke out in places related to waste, or waste processing.
“The most striking example is the fire near Malagrotta, in June, where a large waste processing plant went up in flames,” says the alderman. “Saturday the fire raged in Centocelle, close to where car wrecks are broken down.”
There used to be a Roma camp near that junkyard. That is no longer the case, but illegal waste dumping, which the Roma are often guilty of, remains a problem in that area. According to the alderman, the municipality still has to regularly clear the waste there.
“In any case, these fires are not the result of a lack of maintenance,” says Alfonsi. “In recent months, the city has preventively mowed the grass on 85 to 90 percent of the municipal land, in order to avoid the risk of fire. Police and justice need to get to the bottom of this case, but this all seems too much of a coincidence.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 12 July 2022