"I represent a state that wants to tell family members that it is by their side and always will be, that will apologize whenever there is an apology for not having had the ability to defend lives and protect their family members. The state has the institutional and moral duty to give justice, knowing that that truth will not bring back children, mothers, fathers and brothers who died three years ago ". So the Minister of Justice Alfonso Bonafede, in commemoration of the 29 victims of the Rigopiano hotel.
The family members of the victims of the tragedy of the Hotel Rigopiano di Farindola, overwhelmed and destroyed by an avalanche on 18 January 2017 , for the third consecutive year, found themselves at the disaster site to commemorate their loved ones.
Rigopiano: three years later, pain and emotion on hotel remains
A few minutes before 5 pm three years ago, an avalanche of snow, ice and debris weighing 120 thousand tons overwhelmed and destroyed the hotel, killing 29 people among customers and employees.
It's time to remember in Rigopiano: in the eyes of family members we can read the pain of those who, on January 18 of three years ago, because of that monster of ice and debris, lost a loved one.
Rigopiano, a survivor recalls: "Days to look for living people"
After the flowers were placed in front of the hotel totem, there was a moment of prayer and recollection; then relatives were allowed to enter the avalanche area and where the resort once stood. Following a procession, with 29 lighted torches, that from the Mirri crossroads between Rigopiano and Farindola reaches the parish church of "San Nicola Vescovo" for mass.