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The Mysterious Fires In Canneto Di Caronia

G

ginoide

Abominable Snowman
Joined
Sep 7, 2001
Messages
811
mystery fires in sicilian village

unfortunately i can only give you an italian link, but it looks like there's a little village in sicily that's being hit by mysterious electricty-related phenomena. appliances and entryphones suddenly going on fire in the houses, ditto unconnected cables lying on the ground.
this keeps happening even though the electricity supply to the whole village has been cut. authorities thought it could be some kind of dispersion from the railway lines nearby, but yesterday they tried disconnecting those lines too and the phenomena kept happening.
hope i can find some english reports on this collective polt; i tried googling the name of the village, but only restaurant references crop up...
 
ginoide: Fancy playing a little translation ping pong?

I'll serve the Google translation to you and you tweak it and we go from there?

The translation with tweaks:

Mysterious phenomena at Canneto di Caronia. They inquire also the geology

Household-electric in flames, yellow in the Messinese
Contatori Enel that jumps, fires to cables electrical workers puts down you to the ground, citofoni destroyed. Also with the detached current

The firemen take part after one of "mysterious" fires (Handle)
MESSINA - Contatori of the Enel that jumps, cable fragments electrical workers rests to you for earth who take fire, systems electrical workers who autodistruggono: from some day in the fraction of Canneto, to Caronia, common small of the Messinese, communal inhabitants, police officers, Enel technicians, administrators, are to the taken ones with inexplicable facts . They seem incidents provokes from excessive cargo of current electrical worker to you. But the mystery is born from the fact that is produced even if the current electrical worker is detached in the fraction . To Cane field the railway line passes and the technicians do not exclude that a dispersion electrical worker can leave from platform just. But Sunday the power line used from the railroads has been deactivated, bloccando the convoys that pass just beside the fraction of Cane field: although that citofoni and household-electric has continued to take fire. Insomma, a phenomenon for hour inspegabile, that it evokes film like "Poltergeist".


EVACUATION - the mayor of Caronia, Pedro Spinnato he is by now in procinto emitting a ten of decrees of evacuation for the families that reside in the small fraction in river to the sea . "we are speaking with the Cane field citizens - it says - inviting who does not have to garrison the own room in order to face the fire danger to go via in order not running risks to the health, in wait to understand what is happening ". "It seems assessed the current presence electrical worker in the land - the mayor adds - We now attend the arrival of the technicians of the regional Agency for the atmosphere of Palermo and of the Ausl, and then we will see if it will be necessary to evacuate the area. What it happens does not have some logical explanation and is becoming alarming. Also some cable fragments electrical workers support to you on the pavements are set afire to you independently ".

GEOLOGY - From Rome arrived a gelogy group collaborating in order to resolve the Cane field yellow. After the first verifications, and after the deactivation of the electric power in the entire fraction of Canneto, the Enel has declined every responsibility. It is believed now, and for this they are arrives the geologi to you, than us it can be some phenomenon of electromagnetic nature in the sottosuolo. The phenomena are are continued in the night: five new fires of household-electric, all detach to you from the net. In flames also the girdle of a tube of the aqueduct, mysteriously covered from current electrical worker. Mayor Pedro Spinnato has arranged the closing of the water conduct, while the inhabitants have passed the night from relatives and friends, while a group of inhabitants is remained with the police enforcements to garrison the houses, a dozen, interested from the mysterious episodes.
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Source

also the Babelfish one (pretty much the same):

Bablefish

Emps
 
just the highlights to give you an idea

MESSINA - Meters going berserk, pieces of cable lying on the ground going on fire, electrical systems breaking down: in the last few days in the little village of caronia (near messina) inhabitants, police officers, electric company technicians are dealing with inexplicable facts . The incidents look like they're caused by an electricty overload. But the weird fact is these things keep happening even when electricity supply is suspended. Inquirers thought there might be a dispersion from the railway line passing nearby: but they tried deactivating the power line used by the railroad and the phenomena didn' stop: entryphones and appliances kept going on fire for no apparent reason. All in all, an inexèplicable pèhenomenon that reminds of movies like <poltergeist>.


EVACUATION - the mayor of Caronia, Pedro Spinnato, is now about to order the evacuation of some families living in the village.
geologists think the cause may be some kind of underground electromagnetic phenomenon. Last night there were five more cases of appliances going on fire although they were not plugged in. Also the girdle of an aqueduct pipe went ablaze. Mayor Pedro Spinnato has ordered to close the water conduct. etc. etc. etc.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Flaming Spirits

The Times is carrying it today (I don't read the Times - someone passed the page to me - honest). Check out the dodgy 'skeptical' information near the end....

Sicilians summon exorcist as 'evil spirit' becomes too hot to handle

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-996639,00.html

VILLAGE in Sicily where household appliances, furniture and everyday objects have spontaneously burst into flames is to call in an exorcist.

Experts on electricity, magnetic fields, telephone technology, geology and civil protection have already descended in force on the village of Canneto di Caronia, on the coast near Messina. All have concluded, despite exhaustive tests, that they are dealing with “a scientifically inexplicable phenomenon”.

The village, which has a population of 150, was evacuated yesterday. Tullio Martella, the head of civil protection for Sicily, said: “I can say with absolute certainty that there is no precedent for this either in our present-day experience or in the literature on the subject. It seems to have something to do with a dispersal of electric current, but where it is coming from we have no idea.”

The trouble began three weeks ago, when a television set in a house in the village caught fire. The owners thought at first that it was “just a short circuit, nothing that unusual”. But then appliances in other houses began to burst into flames, to the point where the district fire brigade became permanently installed in the village , hoses and foam at the ready for the next outbreak.

The burnt-out appliances include washing machines, vacuum cleaners and entry phones, as well as mattresses, chairs and electricity and water cables. Francesco Vitale, a mathematics teacher at the village school, said that his telephone charger had caught fire “out of the blue”.

Pedro Spinnato, the Mayor, who is an architect, said that the same had happened to the protective casing on his water pipes.

In one of the most bizarre cases, Gaetano Pezzino said that wedding presents piled up in one of the rooms of his house after his daughter’s wedding had burst into flames, causing a fire “that burnt down half the house”.

A spokesman for Enel, the Italian electricity company, said that in desperation it had turned off all power to the village ten days ago. But the “spontaneous” fires had continued as before.

A local insurance agent said that even before the evacuation, 12 houses had become uninhabitable because of the fires and 16 families had fled to take refuge with relatives elsewhere.

Filippo Casella, 84, said that he was “prepared to sleep in the open air if necessary, even though it’s winter. After all, I often did it during the Second World War, and I can do it again.”

The Mayor said: “No one wants to sleep in a house that might catch fire at any moment. Fortunately no one has died yet, but we are all afraid.” He added that many in the village believed that it had been possessed by an evil spirit, which was “creeping from house to house” and setting fire to everyday objects.

Others more sceptical of supernatural malevolence blame the nearby Messina to Palermo railway line, suggesting that perhaps current accumulates in the tracks and then spreads by unidentified means to houses. [The 'Me and Betty think it's probably rays' style explanation - Scott]

The Italian State Railway said, however, that after villagers had staged a sit-in on the line last Sunday as a protest — risking electrocution in the process — it had stopped all trains for one night and turned off the power. The fires had continued the next day as if nothing had happened.

Signor Spinnato said that he hoped that the fires would be put out “either by the technicians or by an exorcist — and at this point I have more faith in the exorcist”.
 
Good find - it appears to have hit the English-speaking news today:

Source

"I've seen things like this before," Catholic exorcist Gabriele Amorth told Italian daily Il Messagero. "Demons occupy a house and appear in electrical goods...Let's not forget that Satan and his followers have immense powers."
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Source

Pedro Spinnato, the village mayor, has ordered the evacuation so further investigations can be carried out.

"This has been going on for three weeks now and there is no explanation for it. We cannot risk a tragedy through these fires, so I have no other option but to evacuate the village," said Mr Spinnato.

"We have had electrical engineers in to examine cables and wires but they can find no explanation. It is not just electrical items, furniture is also catching fire for no reason.

"Already people are blaming the events on evil spirits and I am being asked to get the local priest to perform an exorcism."

........

Father Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican’s chief expert on exorcisms, said: "With cases of demon behaviour it is normal for domestic appliances to be involved and for demons make their presence known via electricity."
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Source

I quite like the Register article:

Cyberappliances attack Italian village

By Lester Haines
Posted: 11/02/2004 at 17:25 GMT


The small village of Canneto di Caronia in Sicily has become the front line in the war of annihilation between humanity and Terminator-style roboappliances.

For three weeks terrified residents have battled for their very survival against spontaneously-combusting TVs, fridges and cookers which have damaged twelve houses and provoked a full-scale evacuation of the hamlet.

Mobile phones have mysteriously burst into flames, and even furniture - not previously noted for malevolent intent, except in the form of particluarly vicious sofabed mechanisms - has joined the struggle to purge mankind from the face of the planet.

Experts are baffled, particularly so since the fires continue unabated even when the power is disconnected.

The shaken mayor of Canneto di Caronia, Pedro Spinnato, says: "This all began three weeks ago and we can discover no explanation. We cannot risk a tragedy through these fires so I have no other option to evacuate.

"We have had engineers in to examine cables and wires but they can find nothing wrong. Twelve houses have been severely damaged after various domestic appliances burst into flames."

Civil protection chief Tullio Martella adds: "What is going on here is like a scene from some paranormal film. The fires continued even when we cut power to the village to see if that was a possible cause For the time being there is no scientific explanation and I have never heard of anything like this before."

That's because Martella has never been to Newcastle-upon-Tyne or Madrid where locals are fully aware of what's behind this kind of technological uprising.

And while the former residents of Canneto di Caronia are calling for an exorcism to purge their homes of evil, we at Vulture Central know there is only one real solution which can contain murderous robofridges and self-immolating kitchen furniture - stealth aircraft bearing nukes, and plenty of 'em. ®
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/35500.html

but it all seems to have stopped - could evacuating the village have removed the 'source':

MYSTERIOUS FIRES IN THE MESSINA AREA

(AGI) - Messina, 10 Feb - The mysterious phenomenon of the spontaneous fires that provoked fear and surprise among the residents of Canneto on the Tyrrhenian coast of the province of Messina has come to a standstill in the last twelve hours. The thirty or so inhabitants of the village who were evacuated for security reasons have not yet been able to go home. Experts of the State Rescue Services continue to carry out checks whilst awaiting special machinery from Milan in order to get more precise results. Yesterday the fires had become paradoxical and were even breaking out in water pipes or between pieces of electrical wire which had been cut and were lying on the ground without being connected to any source of energy. The electricty has been turned off in Canneto for several days but this did not stop the fires breaking out. In the course of the last few days the flames developed again and again without any plausible explanation in domestic appliances, intercoms, plugs, meters. Checks by electricity company ENEL and technicians from the RFU have for the moment excluded any link between the fires and the electrical pylons of the Palermo-Messina railway line which passes only a few metres from the houses and which the residents believe are in some way responsible. (AGI) .

101632 FEB 04
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Source

Emps
 
Is Lucifer Loose In A Sicilian Village?

This actually sounds more like a polt to me --
or some type of rare earthquake rock-on-rock
phenomenon...

TVgeek

----------------------------------------------

Is Lucifer Loose In
A Sicilian Village?
By John Hooper
The Guardian - UK
2-11-4


ROME -- Is Lucifer loose on Sicily? No lesser figure than the honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists believes he may be.

"What is happening is what normally happens when the devil enters the lives of those who let him in," Father Gabriele Amorth said yesterday as scientists and officials confessed themselves unable to explain a string of fires and explosions which began in the middle of last month in the fishermen's quarter of a Sicilian village.

Thirty-nine inhabitants of Caronia, on the north coast, were preparing to spend their third night away from their homes last night, having been evacuated at the weekend.

Since then, in an operation that could have come straight from the television series X Files, a multi-disciplinary team of experts armed with measuring devices has been examining the area for clues to the spontaneous combustion of washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, electricity meters and cables.

Gianfranco Allegra, of the Italian Centre for Electro-technical Experimentation, told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had watched as "an electrical wire lying on the floor that was not plugged in to the mains inexplicably caught fire". When he reported the incident to his superiors in Milan he was told to sober up.

What makes the incidents all the more puzzling is that the area has been without an electricity supply since January 4.

On Monday the affair took a new turn when a chair burst into flames. Then a fire started in a water pipe.

The mayor of Caronia, Pedro Spinnato, said yesterday: "I have no idea what is going on."

He believed that arson had been ruled out.

Tullio Martella, the regional civil defence chief, said the fires and blasts seemed to derive "from a dispersion of electrical energy, but the origin of the presumed dispersion has yet to be determined".

The houses in which the fires have broken out are all in an area 350 metres (about 380 yards) by 70 metres between the shoreline and a railway.

At first suspicion centred on the railway line, but that has now been discounted.

Yesterday technicians were busy measuring emissions from local mobile telephone facilities.

But Fr Amorth said they should not rule out vibes of a different sort.

"The priest of the parish ought today to go and bless all the houses that have witnessed paranormal phenomena, because that is what they are," he said.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1145394,00.html
 
This is one of the bestest stories ever and it's happening now, NOW! Under the smouldering shadow of Mt. Etna (maybe).
 
Devil in the detail of Sicily's mysterious village fires

John Hooper in Rome
Wednesday February 11, 2004
The Guardian

Is Lucifer loose on Sicily? No lesser figure than the honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists believes he may be.

"What is happening is what normally happens when the devil enters the lives of those who let him in," Father Gabriele Amorth said yesterday as scientists and officials confessed themselves unable to explain a string of fires and explosions which began in the middle of last month in the fishermen's quarter of a Sicilian village.

Thirty-nine inhabitants of Caronia, on the north coast, were preparing to spend their third night away from their homes last night, having been evacuated at the weekend.

Since then, in an operation that could have come straight from the television series X Files, a multi-disciplinary team of experts armed with measuring devices has been examining the area for clues to the spontaneous combustion of washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, electricity meters and cables.

Gianfranco Allegra, of the Italian Centre for Electro-technical Experimentation, told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had watched as "an electrical wire lying on the floor that was not plugged in to the mains inexplicably caught fire". When he reported the incident to his superiors in Milan he was told to sober up.

What makes the incidents all the more puzzling is that the area has been without an electricity supply since January 4.

On Monday the affair took a new turn when a chair burst into flames. Then a fire started in a water pipe.

The mayor of Caronia, Pedro Spinnato, said yesterday: "I have no idea what is going on."

He believed that arson had been ruled out.

Tullio Martella, the regional civil defence chief, said the fires and blasts seemed to derive "from a dispersion of electrical energy, but the origin of the presumed dispersion has yet to be determined".

The houses in which the fires have broken out are all in an area 350 metres (about 380 yards) by 70 metres between the shoreline and a railway.

At first suspicion centred on the railway line, but that has now been discounted.

Yesterday technicians were busy measuring emissions from local mobile telephone facilities.

But Fr Amorth said they should not rule out vibes of a different sort.

"The priest of the parish ought today to go and bless all the houses that have witnessed paranormal phenomena, because that is what they are," he said.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1145394,00.html
 
Thu 12 Feb 2004


Sicilian fires recall nanny's 'witch' ordeal

TRACEY LAWSON


EVEN amid the folklore and superstition which is woven through the fabric of rural Italy, it is a phenomenon which Sicilians have never faced before: a series of unexplained fires, arising in household appliances, even when the electricity is switched off.

But as the village of Canneto di Caronia remained deserted yesterday amid claims that demonic spirits were to blame for the blazes, the hysteria had an all too familiar ring for one Scottish mother.

In the 1980s, Carole Compton went on trial in Italy, branded a witch and a sorceress who used supernatural powers to start fires in the homes where she was employed as a nanny.

Last night, she was attempting to block from her mind the happenings in Canneto di Caronia, which bring sinister echoes of the ordeal which led to her spending 16 months in an Italian jail.

"What happened to me is something that never goes away," she said, from the home she shares with her husband, Zaroof Fazal, and their three school-age children in Yorkshire.

"It was a dreadful ordeal, and all this doesn’t help. I don’t know what’s happening over there now, and I don’t want to. I have a happy life now. I try not to think about the past."

Italian officials remained at a loss yesterday to explain the cause of the recent events in Canneto di Caronia. Pedro Spinnato, the mayor of the village near Messina, ordered residents to evacuate their homes on Tuesday, to allow investigations to be carried out.

The move follows a series of fires in recent weeks, which have seen fridges, cookers, televisions, washing machines and mobile telephones burst into flames spontaneously in 12 different homes.

Enel, the Italian utility company, cut the power to the town after the first reports but the fires have continued.

Officials are now trying to discover if an electromagnetic disturbance, caused by a natural phenomenon, or a problem in the electrical supply network, is to blame.

However, yesterday, fears were escalating that supernatural powers are at play.

Father Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican’s chief expert on exorcisms, indicated that the Roman Catholic Church has not ruled out the possibility of demonic intervention.

According to the Italian daily newspaper, Il Messagero, he said: "I’ve seen things like this before. Demons occupy a house and appear in electrical goods. Let’s not forget that Satan and his followers have immense powers."

The Italian government was yesterday braced for the fact that one of Europe’s richest and most industrialised nations is once again hitting headlines around the world as a country where superstition and fear of the paranormal remain part of modern culture.

The authorities were deeply embarrassed in 1982 when Ms Compton was arrested amid claims that she was a witch with powers of pyrokinesis - the supernatural ability to start fires by thought alone.

The young Scotswoman’s ordeal began in 1982, when she went to Italy with an Italian man she had fallen in love with in her home town of Ayr.

She found a job caring for the children of the Ricci family in an exclusive area of Rome. But within weeks she was linked to objects and religious paintings flying or falling around her, and a number of fires which broke out in holiday homes used by the Riccis.

Another fire also broke out in the bedroom of the Riccis’ two-year-old son, Emanuele.

When told she was no longer needed, the nanny moved to another family, but again, objects were said to have inexplicably fallen off walls in her presence.

When the cot of her three-year-old charge, Agnese, caught fire, she was arrested.

The grandmother of one of the children accused her of being a sorceress, and although she was not charged with witchcraft, this formed the basis of the accusations against her. Italian officials were hugely embarrassed at the panic surrounding her trial, where Italians used crucifixes and amulets to ward off evil.

She was found guilty of arson and attempted arson, although a charge of attempted murder was dismissed.

She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, but having spent 16 months in jail on remand, she was freed immediately.

After her release she published Superstition: The True Story of The Nanny They Called A Witch, a book which included evidence from experts who suggested she was the unwitting victim of a poltergeist.

Today, she has created a new life with her husband and children in West Yorkshire. However, it seems the superstition which led to her imprisonment is still rampant in the land she once called home.
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http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=169722004
 
There was a house in Peckham, SE London that suffered from fires in the 19th/early 20th C. I've got it stashed in an old copy of the FT in an article about Fire Ley-Lines.
 
skitster said:
There was a house in Peckham, SE London that suffered from fires in the 19th/early 20th C. I've got it stashed in an old copy of the FT in an article about Fire Ley-Lines.
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Good call - I have that collected volume by my bed - the articles are "Fire Leynes" by Larry E. Arnold and are in FT22:6-12, FT23:9-17 and FT24:6-9.

Emps
 
I remember watching a documentary about 15-20 years ago that reported similar events occuring in the UK.
From what I can recall, all the houses concerned were in the direct path of a microwave communications system operated by the military. The homes were in the line of sight between the towers, pinpointed right down to which rooms the effects occured in.
Anyone else remember this? What was the conclusion they came to?

I dunno if we use such technology now, what with the Cold War ending and the increased use of satellites for communication. Maybe they still use one like it in Sicily?


I did think at first it could be a fault in the local electricity power supply, causing freak surges and igniting fires in appliances. Until the chair leg and water pipe episodes! Although, they too could conduct electricity? Maybe it arced to the chair leg, or the floor was wet?!
 
Instant Classic

This is one of the most Fortean stories I have seen in a long time. Fort's numerous "fire starter" stories in Wild Talents come instantly to mind, especially in the Nanny case posted by Emperor.

Always a troubled household, a young orphan or servant girl blamed for mysterious events. Fort actually mentions one incident which occurred in the county seat the county where I was born.

This being Sicily, I would look for some major activity around Etna. Speaking of Etna, I will be back in a moment, after checking my atlas and the Internet for a map.
 
Commune of Canneto di Carona

My atlas does not show a Canneto di Caronia, but there is a Marina di Caronia, which I assume is very close by or in the commune (98010 Canneto de Caronia) of the Province of Messina.

My map is 1:1,000,000 scale and I measured a distance of 55 km from the peak of Etna and a similar distance to I Vulcano (which is an island in an arc of presumably vulcanic islands to the North of Sicily. They form a sort of inverted lambda with I Stromboli, another famous vulcanic site (where the Jules Verne travellers to the Centre of the Earth come out through the famous Stromboli vulcano.)

Oh, and I found a photo of a firefighter in one of the houses affected:

Firefighter
 
Re: Commune of Canneto di Carona

littleblackduck said:
My atlas does not show a Canneto di Caronia, but there is a Marina di Caronia, which I assume is very close by or in the commune (98010 Canneto de Caronia) of the Province of Messina.
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I think that is a reaonable assumption - if you look on this map:

http://www.sicilian.net/maps/messina.html

You can see the Marina di Caronia and Caronia on the west end of the north coast and there is a Canneto just west of there down the coast. Perhaps ginoide might be able to shed some light on things but I assume its that place (if so I'll stick an arrow on it and attach it. Etna is just off the bottom right side of the map (its sort of centrally positioned on the east coast).

The whole of the west coast of Italy is volcanic because the African plate is moving NE into the European plate throwing up the Appenines with the Tyrrhenian Sea being the back arc basin and the Adriatic being the fore arc basin (the toe of Italy has been rising faster than more northerly areas over the last few 100,000 years and all the stresses have produced a lot of faulting throughout the region). as lbd said the Aeolian Islands are just off the coast to the north and have been notorious for the vulcanism since ancient times (hence their names being used in volcano studies).

[edit: LOL - snuck in while I was typing ;) ]

Emps
 
yep, that's the place.
canneto is a "frazione" of caronia; the translation i find in my dictionary for "frazione" (an administrative term) is "hamlet (without its own municipality)". in other words, a little village (or even just a bunch of houses), so little it doesn't even have a municipality of its own but it depends on a bigger town nearby. that's why you can't find a "canneto di caronia" on the map.
 
Co-incidentally, I'm in the middle of reading
Vincent Gaddis's book "Mysterious Fires and Lights."

Apparently this same type of phenomenon occurred in
Spain in 1945. It lasted 3 days and culminated in a
huge windstorm. Local peasents were told that there
may be radium under their land, so they began selling
their property off for huge amounts of money.

Their scientists also believed that some earth-related
cause was likely... but Mr. Gaddis also admits that many
of the fires seemed to be poltergeist related.

Mods, feel free to drop this one in Earth Mysteries!

TVgeek
 
Mystery fires hit Sicilian village


ROME (AP) - Unexplained fires have been bursting out in a tiny Sicilian village for weeks, causing its residents to abandon their homes as scientists look for an explanation.

For almost a month, electrical appliances and wiring burst into flames, furniture burned and one house was more seriously damaged in Canneto di Caronia, a village of a few dozen people on Sicily's northern coast, said Prof. Giuseppe Maschio, an expert looking into the case for the government's Civil Defence Agency.

The mayor ordered everyone out for safety, and electricity was cut off. Maschio said he was looking into whether an electromagnetic disturbance could be the cause, either due to a natural phenomenon or due to the electrical network.

"We've restarted the public (electrical) line and now we are doing the same in homes, monitoring them for several days to see if this phenomenon starts again," Maschio said. "It's been since Monday that we haven't seen this."

Rumours that an arsonist could be to blame have circulated. Police refused to say if an investigation was underway.

(CNN 11/02/04)

First mention I've seen of arson.
 
Alexius: Good find - I'm just suprised they didn't throw this one into the mix earlier (it make sit so much better that they went for the exorcists first) as it has to be pretty much the first option eliminated in any investigation (and pos. the one they end up falling back on) but how an arsonist managed to set fire to just electrical applicanes I'll never know.

Shall we start a book on the explanation:

1. An arsonist (pos. a young girl who was in the vicinity when a number of the fires started).

2. Unspecified and unrepeated 'eletrical surges'.

3. Urmmmmmmmmmmmm we don't really know.

Emps
 
Adisham Poltergeist

An intriguing case with striking similarites to the Sicily mystery.

(edit - link, which was functioning 5 minutes ago, now twunted - article reproduced below)
 
2000 VOLTS FROM NOWHERE
BY BILL LOVE
This is a story concerning the strange happenings in the home of a father and son in a small Somerset town some 120 miles west of London, and events, sometimes bordering on the bizarre, in the home of a married couple and their son in a Kent village.
There is a striking similarity between the two cases; weird phenomena centred around the electrical supply; official bodies unable, or perhaps unwilling to help and of course, the inevitable scapegoat - in both cases the son. Numerous theories have been advanced to explain the phenomena but none completely fits the bill.
Somerton is a small, but delightful, Somerset market town. Iverson Cottage, the home of Frank Pattemore and his son Nigel, lies unobtrusively in the heart of Somerton. Within this peaceful looking cottage 83 year old Frank and Nigel are being plagued by strange phenomena.
Adisham is a small, quiet and secluded Kent village lying between Canterbury and Dover. 3 Church Lane is situated near the end of a quiet country lane on the edge of the village. Now boarded up and dilapidated it was some ten years ago, he home of Mr and Mrs Joe Orchard and their son David. Like Frank Pattemores cottage, the Orchards home consisted of a lounge and kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and it was in this quiet rural home that the Orchards suffered phenomena which were at time, so bizarre as to be beyond belief.
Frank Pattemore bought Iverson Cottage in 1976 and he and Nigel enjoyed six happy years and a good electricity supply until 1982 when it was noticed that an unusually large number of fuses were blowing on both the cooker and lighting circuits. SWEB, the local electricity board were informed and their engineers thoroughly examined the troublesome circuits but could find nothing wrong. These circuits were rewired by SWEB and when their engineer switched on the supply, there was a loud explosion which destroyed the fuse board. From that moment there began a long saga of strange happenings; light bulbs exploding, light fittings melting and falling out of the ceiling, switches becoming welded and unusable, the meter turning even when all the circuits had been isolated, television sets catching fire and the phone ringing of its own accord.
RESEARCH
Exerts from SWEB, NASA and the Electricity Research and Development Centre carried out research and investigation and the Cook Report put in an appearance with their own experts but, although 2000 volt surges were recorded the problem remained unsolved and in fact, got worse. By this time SWEB had carried out numerous repairs and two complete rewires but now objects not directly connected to the electricity supply were being affected by this elusive force.
A battery radio set also suffered damage resembling a lightning strike and during one of my visits for the purpose of research, a journalists miniature tape recorder persistently switched itself off when it was placed within a strange forcefield which runs diagonally through the Iverson Cottage.
Frank Pattemore has been visited by experts in many fields; physicists, electrical engineers, psychologists, psychic researchers, mediums, dowsers - and strangers who purport to be officials of one kind or another. They often give a name and telephone number but can never be traced afterwards. Theories advanced have included radar, lasers, poltergeists, ghosts and ley lines but all have been flawed.
The problems for the Orchards began in 1976 when their son, David, was 15. Before this they had spend a number of very happy years in the cottage. The first indication of trouble was with interference electrical equipment - a vacuum cleaner glowed and a television set switched itself on and off. These were minor problems compared to what was to follow.
Phenomena now began to be associated with water; there would be a whooshing sound, as Mrs Orchard described it, and boiling hot water would appear everywhere - in the dogs basket, in the television set, on carpets, mattresses and books and even in electric bulbs. The strange thing is that when the water was emptied the television set would work as though nothing had happened. The water always "left it's mark" - a circle with a dot in the centre.
More bizarre happenings were to follow. Objects would float across the room from their situation on shelves and the sideboard, sometimes slowly and sometimes with such force that they would smash windows or doors and continue their flight outside. A settee, chairs and tables would upend themselves and were held firmly "until the force gave them up"
A broom was snatched right out of Mrs Orchards hand and became attached to the ceiling; a line of books on a shelf flew, one by one, down the stairs, one striking Mrs Orchard on the forehead; the pet cat levitated and hovered close to the ceiling and then ran out terrified when it was released; water pipes bent and buckled as people watched in complete amazement.
What this strange and inexplicable force is and why it should appear only after an appreciable number of serene and happy years, nobody knows. Radars and laser are both line of sight and therefore can be ruled out because other houses remain unaffected. Neither of the homes is situated on a ley line and thus, energy cannot be obtained from this source.
Leakage of electric charges from the mains is hardly a candidate to be considered seriously as it would have to be an enormous amount to create the tremendous field necessary to lift the heavy objects which were moved. In one instance a Rayburn stove moved across the floor, watched by an incredulous official from the local authority.
In both cases very large induced electromotive forces have found their way into the neutral conductor. These surges have been measured at 2000 volts plus, and one day in August 1991, we recorded 11 such surges between 11pm and 11am at Frank Pattemores home.
If, as two electricity boards say, this is occurring within the house, it can only imply that it is being cause mechanically and knowingly by one or more occupants or that is being created by an unknown force within the house or, unwittingly by one of the occupants. If this is the case, the problem falls within the realm of poltergeist activity. An interesting facet of Frank Pattemore case is that, while we were carrying out our research, Hamish Miller, co-author of The Sun and The Serpent, found the same diagonal energy beam with his dowsing roads that we had found with our orthodox, and considerable more expensive scientific apparatus, although he had no prior knowledge of our findings. He also obtained one of the strangest reactions he had ever seen from Frank Pattemore himself.
ATTITUDES
Research into the cause of the phenomena has been hindered by the attitude of those in authority. Official bodies have been obstructive and devious.
SWEB, before the beginning of the investigation, told the writer that the media exaggerated and the phenomena wasn't worth investigating because they were only looking for a simple earth fault. If this were the case, why was Nigel Pattemore followed for two days by two men in a dark blue car and later arrested at work by the same two men and taken to Yeovil Police Station under completely false pretences? He was told that there was to be a meeting concerning he electricity supply at his home and his father would also be at the meeting which was to place in Yeovil; the police station was never mentioned.
The truth of the matter that was whilst he was being kept at Yeovil police station, his father was having the indignity of suffering his home being searched under warrant. Nigel had already suffered the same indignity at work when his lunch box was searched under warrant and his sandwiches taken apart. The possibility of this action being yet another red herring cannot be discounted.
The danger of a preconceived notion stopping all further research is amply illustrated in the Orchards' case. In desperation, due to bizarre events taking lace in his home, Mr orchards called in the police and was visited by a PC from Bridge who then telephone SEEB at Folkestone. As a result, SEEB wrote to Canterbury Subdivision HQ of Kent Police suggesting that quantities of water had been thrown into electrical appliances despite the fact that many gallons could be seen running down the lane.
The police responded by a letter showing that once a preconceived notion has been instilled, the intelligent consideration and analysis of evidence goes out of the window.
"As is known, we both have the same ideas as to the cause of these incidents and the police, in fact, have advised the parents of their feelings in this matter. However, the parents refuse to accept what has been said and prefer to delve into the mysterious occult for the apparent cause.
So there we have it. The police, although totally lacking in evidence whatever, had formed the opinion that the Orchards' son David, was responsible for the bizarre happenings at Church Lane, Adisham.
We are, at present, no-nearer to solving the mystery of the strange force that, so dramatically, invaded the Orchards' home and still plagues the home of Frank and Nigel Pattemore. Neither do we know whether and authority knows what is happening but won't admit whether they, too, are in the dark.
Whatever the force is, it does not obey the known laws of electromagnetism but is without doubt very powerful.
{Bill Love is a physicist by profession and has worked in such a capacity with many large companies. I visited him in Dover in 1996 to enquire about these cases. I was impressed by the level of research which he carried out on these cases. I feel that much more could have been done by the authorities to further research on these cases and the conclusions which were drawn were not the final answers. Bill Love has accumulated a large amount of data on such cases and would like to hear from people with information on similar happenings. Please contact this magazine to be put in touch. - ED}
 
(Apologies for such a monstrous splice - the link mysteriously failed....the article is taken from 'Truthseekers Review E-Zine)

:)
 
Alexius said:
(Apologies for such a monstrous splice - the link mysteriously failed....the article is taken from 'Truthseekers Review E-Zine)

:)
Click to expand...

You somehow omitted the subdomain (don't worry it happened to me in Sainsbury's today but I fashioned a new one from a mango and I don't think anyone noticed):

http://www.truthseekers.freeserve.co.uk/truth/TR13VOLTS.HTM

Good find though :)

What about the old geezer who had all those troubles with his electricity which came up in a recentish FT?

[edit: One question though - how did you get past the main page for that part of the site:

http://www.truthseekers.freeserve.co.uk/truth/truthmain.html

I fin myself transfixed - in some of those issues they even do yellow and light green text on a light background!! I'm just glad I see largely in infrared ;) ]

Emps
 
Ah...some inspired google word association :)

Actually haven't seen the rest of the site - is it really that Danny La Rue?
 
Lucifer?

Erm, former captain of the host of heaven and now the adversary and the best he can do is set fire to a bit of cable?

Please.
 
it's happening again

here's the link and i'll also paste the text in case the link disappears


anyway what it says is that the phenomena have started happening again: appliances and pieces of furniture catching fire for no apparent reason. there are even new phenomena: cell phones going berserk and showing "strange graphic symbols" on their displays, and car locks going awry.
it also says (it's the second blue link on the article, if you go to the site) that before today the experts had come up with an explanation: a "rare electromagnetical phenomenon" based on potential difference (don't ask me, i don't know).
here's the article (emps, go ahead with your translator if you want!):



CRONACHE
L'esperto della protezione civile è tornato nella cittadina siciliana
Nuovi incendi misteriosi a Canneto
Oltre a nuove fiamme divampate in due case del paese ora si verificano strani fenomeni sui telefoni cellulari e sulle auto

I pompieri intervengono dopo uno dei «misteriosi» incendi (Ansa)
CANNETO (MESSINA) - Riprendono a Canneto, la piccola frazione di Caronia sulla costa tirrenica della provincia di Messina, i misteriosi incendi che un mese fa divamparono a ripetizione in sette abitazioni e che furono attribuiti dai tecnici della protezione civile regionale a un raro fenomeno elettrostatico. Le fiamme hanno cominciato spontaneamente a divampare in due case di Canneto, attaccando com'era avvenuto in precedenza elettrodomestrici e mobilio. Erano presenti i carabinieri ed alcuni abitanti della frazione, che da quando si è presentato l'inconsueto fenomeno sono stati costretti a trasferirsi temporaneamente per ragioni di sicurezza.

ANOMALIE SUI CELLULARI E SULLE AUTO- Oltre ai due incendi, si sono verificate anomalie sui telefoni cellulari, con la comparsa sui display di strani simboli grafici, e sono scattate da sole le chiusure automatiche di alcune autovetture. L'ipotesi della causa elettrostatica dei fenomeni non è stata definitivamente avvalorata dagli scienziati, che continuano a esaminare i risultati dei lunghi e complessi rilievi compiuti a Canneto nei giorni immediatamente successiva alla prima comparsa dei roghi spontanei.

TORNA L'ESPERTO DELLA PROTEZIONE CIVILE - Il professor Giuseppe Maschio, docente della facoltÃ_ di Ingegneria dell'UniversitÃ_ di Messina e componente della commissione regionale Grandi Rischi incaricato di studiare il fenomeno è tornato a Caronia su incarico della Protezione Civile. «Torno a Canneto - ha detto - per capire che cosa sta accadendo. Ho ricevuto poco fa la telefonata del Dipartimento. Noi ci eravamo fermati in attesa dell'esito dell'inchiesta giudiziaria, aperta dalla Procura di Mistretta, e del monitoraggio della Protezione Civile. Adesso bisognerÃ_ capire quali sono le novitÃ_».


16 marzo 2004
 
Oooooooooooo OK here is a quick Babelfish translation:

REPORTS

The expert of the civil protection is returned in the sicialian citizen

New mysterious fires at Canneto

Beyond to new flames divampate in two houses of the country hour takes place strange phenomena on the cellular telephones and on the cars the firemen take part after one of "mysterious" fires (Handle)

CANNETO (MESSINA) - They resume to Canneto, the small fraction of Caronia on the tirrenica coast of the province of Messina, the mysterious fires that a month it makes divamparono to repetition in seven rooms and that they were attributed from the technicians of the regional civil protection to a rare electrostatic phenomenon. The flames have spontaneously begun to divampare in two Canneto houses, attacking com' it had happened previously elettrodomestrici and mobilio. The police officers and some were present inhabitants of the fraction, than from when she has introduced itself the unusual phenomenon they have been forced to move itself temporary for emergency reasons.

ANOMALIES On the CELLULAR ones and the CARS Beyond to two fires, have taken place anomalies on the cellular telephones, with the appearance on the display of strange graphical symbols, and are released alone the automatic closings of some motors vehicle. The hypothesis of the electrostatic cause of the phenomena has not been definitively confirmed from the scientists, that they continue to examine turns out to you of the long and complex completed reliefs to Canneto in the days immediately successive to the first appearance of the roghi spontaneous.

The EXPERT Of the CIVIL PROTECTION RETURNS - professor the Giuseppe Male, teacher of the faculty of Engineering of the University of Messina and member of the regional commission Great Risks person in charge to study the phenomenon is returned to Caronia on assignment of the Civil Protection. "I return to Canneto - it has said - in order to understand that what is happening. I have received little ago the telephone call of the Department. We had stopped ourselves in attended of the outcome of the judicial inquiry, opened from the Power of attorney of Mistretta, and the monitoring of the Civil Protection. Now it will have to understand which are the innovationes ".
Click to expand...

Anyone wonder if there is a link between the fires and other weird recent electromagentic activity:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13678

Possibly the Allies in The War Against Terror are ramping up their tests on some kind of anti-bomb kind of weapons? If so where are the nearest bases to there?

Emps
 
ok, here only the relevant bits


New mystery fires in Canneto



CANNETO (MESSINA) - Mystery fires are happening again in Canneto, near caronia. A month ago Protezione civile (the state body that deals with natural catastrophes, earthquakes, floods and other emergencies) had put down the fires to a rare electrostatic phenomenon. Now appliances and furniture are catching fire again in two houses n canneto. The phenomenon was witnessed by police officers and residents of the little village.

ANOMALIES On CELL phones and car locks: strange graphical symbols started appearing on the displays of cell phones, while the automatic locks of several cars started going on and off. The electrostatic explanation of the phenomena has not been confirmed by scientists yet.
 
Mystery Fires in sicily

Mystery fires in sicily - from the mirror
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VILLAGE BLAZES AGAIN Mar 18 2004

From Jeremy Charles In Rome


A VILLAGE hit by a series of mystery fires was in flames again yesterday, leaving experts more baffled than ever.

The phenomenon began two months ago as fridges, washing machines and cookers all burst into flames for no reason. Locals were evacuated amid calls for an exorcism but experts put the fires down to electrostatic interference from power pylons.

But just a month later, as villagers were moving back to Canneto di Caronia, near Messina, Sicily, fires have started again.

Disconnected fuse boxes have burst into flames, car central locking systems blocked up and mobile phones have caught fire.

Yesterday mayor Pedro Spinnato said: "Yes, it's started all over again. Now we are back to where we started."

Last night experts, surveyors and engineers were probing the mystery.

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Most odd. Could electrostatic interference cause fires?
 
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