IO Digest Desk
A deadly industrial explosion at Toyota Material Handling’s plant in Bologna left two workers dead and 11 others injured on the event date, 2024-10-23, setting off a criminal investigation and renewed scrutiny of workplace safety at one of the area’s major manufacturing sites. Italian outlet Stato Quotidiano identified the dead workers as Lorenzo Cubello, 37, and Fabio Tosi, 34, both from Bologna.
The blast occurred at about 5:30 p.m. inside a warehouse structure on Via Persicetana Vecchia, according to the report. The explosion was strong enough to cause part of the building to collapse onto workers inside. One injured employee was reported to be in serious condition after surgery, while the others were hospitalized with lighter injuries and were not considered to be in life-threatening condition.
Emergency services mounted a large response. Stato Quotidiano reported that eight fire brigade teams were dispatched under the coordination of provincial commander Mauro Caciolai, alongside carabinieri, local health authority technicians and multiple ambulances. Witnesses described a detonation so intense that some initially feared an earthquake.
Investigators had not yet established a definitive cause on the event date. Early reconstructions cited in the report pointed to a powerful compressor as a possible source of the explosion, but the article stressed that the inquiry was only beginning. Prosecutors in Bologna opened an investigation to determine how the blast occurred and whether anyone bears responsibility. Once the area is fully secured, the site is expected to be seized for further inspections.
Even before investigators reached conclusions, the accident reopened concerns among workers and unions about safety procedures. Stato Quotidiano reported that some employees had already voiced worries about whether production protocols were being followed. Gian Pietro Montanari of the Fiom union said a new safety strike had already been planned for the following day and argued that maintenance practices would need to be examined closely. He also said workers had raised alarms in the past, including around equipment that required testing and a previous fire in the paint department.
Those comments quickly fed into a wider labor response. The metalworkers’ unions Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil in Bologna called a full-day strike for Friday, October 25, under the slogan “Basta morti sul lavoro,” or “Enough deaths at work.” In a joint statement cited by Stato Quotidiano, they described the explosion as another workplace tragedy for the territory and said the incident made the factory safety issue impossible to ignore. The Sindacato generale di base also announced a 24-hour strike across the Bologna metropolitan area for both public and private workers.
The site itself has substantial local economic importance. Stato Quotidiano said Toyota Material Handling, which produces forklifts and logistics equipment, expected 2023 revenue of 560 million euros. The company had also presented an investment and research plan in July to the Emilia-Romagna region that included more than 300 hires and total spending of 94 million euros, with 28 million euros planned for the Bologna plant.
Those figures now sit beside a starkly different measure of the factory’s significance: the number of workers killed or hurt on a single afternoon. On the event date, the immediate story was the loss of Cubello and Tosi and the treatment of the injured. But the political and legal aftermath was already taking shape, with prosecutors, inspectors and unions all moving to define whether the explosion will be treated as an unavoidable accident or evidence of a deeper failure in workplace safety.
