Urban explorers from the YouTube channel Exploring With Fighters have documented the eerie remains of Fossa, an Italian town evacuated in April 2009 after a catastrophic earthquake. The team, led by Dan, described the experience as "overwhelming" and noted that the town feels "heartbroken."
Evacuation and Immediate Aftermath
The earthquake, registering over 3.5 on the Richter scale, caused widespread structural damage and raised fears of a mountainside collapse. Residents were ordered to evacuate immediately, leaving behind nearly all their possessions. Dan explained: "Because a lot of the buildings built up here don't use reinforced steel, they just started cracking and crumbling. They got a call in the early hours of the morning that there was going to be a serious earthquake and everyone had to evacuate forever."
An estimated 20,000 people fled that night. Dan added: "There were 20,000 people. When you read the stories online it is heartbreaking — there are stories of people dragging their kids out of beds as the walls are falling in."
Haunting Scenes Inside Abandoned Homes
The explorers' footage reveals homes frozen in time. In one residence, a dining table remains fully laid, while kitchen drawers are thrown open — evidence of a desperate search for valuables before escape. An antique pram and a child's bicycle lie abandoned, and a calendar still shows the date of the evacuation: April 2009. Dan remarked: "I don't think I even want to go upstairs in this place," after entering a property nearly split in two by the earthquake.
Structural Damage and Looting
Many buildings suffered severe cracking and crumbling due to the lack of reinforced steel. The ancient church in the town center teeters on the brink of collapse, with even minor tremors from the adjacent fault line threatening to send it down the mountainside. Dan cautioned against venturing onto balconies, which offer picturesque valley views but are structurally unsafe.
A shop was found completely looted, yet oddly, several bottles of beer and cans of Fanta — expired in 2009 — remain on top of a fridge. Throughout the town, personal possessions such as pot plants and televisions are covered in dust, and numerous ceilings have collapsed after years of abandonment.
Nature Reclaims the Town Centre
The town centre presents an eerie spectacle, with branches and vines threading through shattered windows and emerging from cracked pavements. Dan compared Fossa to Fukushima, the Japanese settlement devastated by a 2011 earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster, which forced over 100,000 people to evacuate.
The urban explorers' findings offer a poignant glimpse into a community abruptly halted, leaving behind a stark testament to the power of nature and the fragility of human habitation.
