From the British Inquirer: Religious and scientific experts are baffled by mysterious fires which have been destroying computers and other electrical items in a village in Sicily. Canneto di Caronia has been largely abandoned after “demon-fires” that cause computers and electrical devices to spontaneously combust.
Scientists and religious experts swooped on the 20 houses in the village to investigate the fires, which started even after the power supply to the village was cut.
The Catholic Church’s top exorcists suspected the devil was at work as they told the media that they had experience with demons manifesting in electrical goods before, but they drew a blank.
The [Italian organization] Committee for the Control of Paranormal Claims has ruled out demons or poltergeists.
“The fact that the phenomenon occurs only when there are people present makes it hard to believe that it is a natural, or even supernatural phenomenon,” it said in a statement. CICAP scientific sponsors include Nobel prize winners Rita Levi Montalcini and Carlo Rubbia, scientists Silvio Garattini, Margherita Hack, Tullio Regge, Giuliano Toraldo di Francia, and it enjoys the public support of Umberto Eco. The TV journalist Piero Angela was one of the founders.
Other hypotheses now range from a build-up of electrical energy caused by grounding wires running off the railway to a rare “natural phenomenon” in which surges of electricity rise from the Earth’s core.
Update [2004-4-6 8:0:52 by rickyjames]: Just for fun, here’s a Google Italian-to-English translation of a local article on this subject.
The fires began in January 2004 and were reported as a Reuters dispatch in the reputable “Register” on Feb 11. A fairly major English language website on the situation was put up in March. So it’s not an April Fools Joke – come to thinkl of it, do the Italians even HAVE April Fools?
Googling for Pedro Spinnato in the news section turns up a number of almost identical stories all but one published on or just after April 1st. There is a single story before that – The Mirror (UK) on March 18th. Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know The Mirror is not known for quality journalism. Could it be that the journalists are just reprinting the story without checking the facts?
as an italian (pardon my english), I can answer: yes, we have april fools (that we call “pesci d’ aprile”, april fishes), but no, this is not one of them…
The case went even on national tv when it started, in january… and even today there is not a clear explanation. However, as the CICAP site tell, there’re some reason to suspect that somebody is playing some trick… after all, that village was protesting against the construction of a rail too near the houses, and at first they accused the rail of this events… and now they’re enjoing a great deal of media and tourist attraction… and when they evacuated the village for some days the events stopped… like said a notorious italian politic man (later accused of mafia bonds ;-) ), “thinking bad is a sin, but usually is right”
Don’t quite know enough about electromagnetic forces or solar storms to really draw conclusions of this nature, but it does tend to make one wonder if the composition of metals and or minerals under the village might not be drawing in a form of unseen lightening or some other type of interaction with what exists underneath the village. ???
Wouldn’t that be a thoroughly fascinating place to be right now? :)