«The Sicily Region has made a declaration of the state of national mobilization, with the request to the Civil Protection to take action in support of the activities of the Region, obviously ground support, because we have sent all the available air vehicles. We will then send teams from other regions and there will be a doubling of the shifts by the firefighters who have made available more teams. There will then be a decree “to respond to the emergency. The head of the civil protection zone, Fabrizio Curcio, said about the fire emergency that hit the island
Curcio: active struggle is the responsibility of the Regions
Curcio recalled that the “responsibilities in the context of what is done against forest fires are clear. The rules provide that active struggle is the responsibility of the Regions. And active fighting is not only extinguishing, but also surveillance, sighting. The State is responsible for coordinating the air competition when the Regions are unable to intervene with their own means ».
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From 15 June already 558 requests for intervention
The head of the civil protection area then took stock of the anti-fire interventions in recent months. And he recalled that “this season is particularly demanding”: from June 15 to today “we have received 558 requests for air intervention from the Regions, compared to 160 last year, 226 in 2019 and 127 in 2018. And 33% requests have been concentrated in the last week ». At the moment, “there have been 30 applications for an air competition; of these 12 in Sicily and 5 in Calabria ». The state air fleet, Curcio recalled, consists of 30 vehicles distributed over 16 bases and is activated when the Regions are unable to extinguish the fires with their own means.
“From 15 June to 31 July 2021 the Civil Protection received 558 requests for air competition: of these 33% arrived in the last 7 days”. So much so that 2021 is dangerously close to 2007 and 2012 “really very complicated years” in terms of fighting fires. And: with these 558 requests, 2021 is dangerously close to 2012 and 2017, hopefully not 2007 “, said Curcio: according to the data shown at the conference in 2017 there were 797 requests, 590 in 2012 and 1,025 in 2007.” Di these 558 requests for competition in aerial intervention, about 35% were made by the Sicilian Region and 20% by Calabria. In addition, more than 33% took place in the last week ”, Curcio further specified, defining“ this season certainly challenging but that in the last week particularly difficult for us ”.