The following correction to this story appeared in the European edition on Oct. 26: "A story in Saturday’s editions about a fire that destroyed the cold storage facility in Naples, Italy, was misleading. The cold storage facility is only for the Navy Exchange food court."
A Sept. 28 fire that destroyed the cold storage facility for the new Navy Exchange and commissary will not delay the shopping complex’s expected opening in May 2005, Navy officials say.
“There’s been no indication from [construction company] Mirabella that there needs to be a delay based on the fire,” Lt. Cmdr. Jacquelynn Fisher, Naples public affairs officer, wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.
Navy fire officials reported that a worker using a cutting wheel near fire retardant insulation accidentally started the fire, which was fought by Navy and Italian firefighters for more than two hours.
Mirabella is responsible for repairing the cold storage facility, Fisher said.
The exchange and commissary complex is part of the Naples Improvement Initiative, a huge construction boom for naval facilities in the area that has been planned since the early 1980s. Construction on housing and support facilities at Gricignano alone totaled about $440 million.
Work on support site buildings started in February 1996 and had been expected to be complete by 2001. Delays brought on by a work-halt ordered by anti-mafia prosecutors in 1999, and even archaeological digs, have since pushed the exchange and commissary opening date to May 2005.
