We thank Viviana Facchinetti, journalist and author of "...why the Fire Brigade is always there. Trieste and its Firefighters through centuries of history, current events, and real life" (Associazione Italiani di Pola e dell'Istria – LCPE Odv, Trieste 2025), for allowing us to publish excerpts from her book regarding the fire at the Hotel Balkan, which occurred on July 13, 1920, at the end of a day of clashes between Italian and Slavic nationalists in Trieste.

The riots were sparked by the news that on the night between July 11th and 12th, a Croatian demonstration in Split had targeted the Italian community, requiring the intervention of the sailors of the Royal Navy Spalato, moored there as part of the inter-Allied contingent stationed in Dalmatia while awaiting the definition of the new border. Captain Tommaso Gulli and engineer Aldo Rossi were killed and would later be awarded the Gold Medal and the Silver Medal for Military Valor posthumously, respectively.

From the daily report of July 13, 1920 on the intervention of the Fire Brigade (pp. 153-154):

19.15 pm: Giuseppe Delpiero, at a table at the Caffè Fabris, telephoned the main barracks to inform them that the Narodni Dom (Hotel Balkan) building, located in Piazza Guglielmo Oberdan no. 2, had been set on fire.

The captain arrived with the city train (first rescue and main car) and, seeing that it was a large-scale fire, ordered the Aurisina fire hoses to be deployed and telephoned the Commander, who arrived shortly thereafter with the fire engine and its personnel (which had left the barracks at 7:40 PM). It has been established that the fire was started by citizens returning from the rally in Piazza dell'Unità (a protest over the tragic events in Split), provoked by the Slovenians, who fired revolver shots and threw hand grenades from the windows and roof. The fire, which had started simultaneously in the ground floor and attic rooms, was fanned by the wind and quickly spread to the intermediate floors and the roof. Four Aurisina fire hoses (with rather low pressure) and two jets from the fire engine, installed near the well of the large fountain in Piazza Oberdan, were activated.

The former attacked from the outside and from the four stone stairways at the entrances on Via Giorgio Galatti and Via Geppa; the latter from the roof of the adjacent building owned by the Municipality of Trieste. After a few hours, they had to retreat from the internal stairways, as the steps and landings on the lower floors were beginning to break and collapse.

As soon as they retreated from the right staircase on Via Giorgio Galatti, it collapsed completely. Shortly thereafter, a staircase on Via Geppa collapsed completely, and the other two staircases partially collapsed. After midnight, the fire's violence began to subside, thus reducing the danger to nearby buildings. Firefighting efforts continued tirelessly until after 8:00 a.m. the following day, with a replacement team (1 inspector and 6 soldiers) then left on site to further extinguish individual sections and to keep watch. Due to the obstruction of the firefighting efforts by the exasperated crowd, the violence of the fire that had started in July 13, 1920, the Narodni Dom (Hotel Balkan), which had destroyed several parts of the building, the deficient water pressure from Aurisina, and the collapse of four internal staircases, only a few ground-floor rooms on Via Galatti and Via Geppa could be saved. The neighboring buildings were completely saved.