Hot weather, not just mugginess but fire risk. And 3 regions have no fire-fighting fleet: here are the ones

With temperatures approaching 40 degrees, all it takes is nothing to set off a fire that can turn a forest into an expanse of ashes: this is the other side of the heat alarm, the one that every summer sees the Peninsula dotted with plumes of smoke, in the green areas of cities and in the nature that surrounds them. The government launched the Forest Firefighting Campaign on 15 June, which will end on 15 October, providing the regions with a document to recall tasks, responsibilities and initiatives to coordinate the forces in the field.

Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci has therefore sent out recommendations to identify priorities for action to ensure the safety of citizens, with information campaigns aimed at improving their 'capacity for self-protection'. In the event of a fire, the Civil Protection Department explains, the first to intervene are the ground teams coordinated by the regions. But if that is not enough, it is possible to ask for the intervention of aerial means, in particular helicopters, supplied by the Regions themselves. In really serious cases, the Region can call on the State's air fleet, which consists of 15 Canadair CL415 aircraft and 4 Erickson S64F helicopters, plus a further 11 helicopters from the Defence, Fire Brigade and Carabinieri. "In the event of extremely critical situations," the department goes on to explain, "aircraft co-financed by the European Commission as part of the 'rescEU' project may also be deployed on national territory. In Sardinia, for example, as of today, three Candair aircraft stationed in Olbia and a Navy helicopter in Cagliari are officially deployed for the national fleet. These are joined by nine aircraft - including two Superpumas and seven helicopters - of the regional fleet, as well as a fire brigade helicopter in Alghero. Two more regional helicopters will be deployed in Fenosu and Iglesia thanks to a negotiated tender procedure launched at the end of June. Musumeci also wished to focus attention on the safety of fire-fighting operators, with 'increasingly high-performance' equipment, but also with adequate training, as well as making the most of scientific tools to quantify risks and, above all, prevent them. The great heat also brings with it an alarm for water reserves. The watchword is 'fight against waste'. Just a few days ago, for example, the municipality of Campobasso issued an ordinance with some rules for the responsible use of the resource: it is forbidden to use water from the aqueduct for non-essential purposes, such as watering gardens or vegetable gardens, washing cars or filling swimming pools and private fountains. But similar ordinances are already in force, or about to be, in many municipalities on the Peninsula, particularly those where water is historically scarce.

"The framework law on forest fires is assigned to the regions and the autonomous provinces, which have the task of planning and implementing prevention and active combating of forest fires, which means reconnaissance, surveillance, alerting and extinguishing with ground and airborne means, and here too the situation on the islands is particularly critical because ground means obviously have to be present on the islands in advance. So the contribution that can be made during the extinguishing activities must be based on the presence of fire-fighting means directly on the islands'. These were the words of the head of the civil protection department, Fabio Ciciliano, at a hearing before the parliamentary commission for combating the disadvantages of insularity. Ciciliano went on to point out 'that with regard to the 2025 forest fire-fighting campaign, the regional air fleets were absent in Umbria, Molise, and Apulia'. For the latter, Ciciliano pointed out, "the tenders that have been announced several times in the Puglia region for the acquisition of a regional fleet have an important impact on the Tremiti Islands, and therefore any intervention that may be necessary with regard to putting out fires on this archipelago will necessarily have to be carried out by the state air fleet, which works in support of the regions during the entire forest fire-fighting campaign". Ciciliano went on to add that 'while the Sardinia Region has its own functional centre, the Sicily Region does not and the Civil Protection Department, according to what is the consolidated action of vertical subsidiarity, makes up for this absence'.