A sort ofMost farmers live in remote towns in the Aspromonte mountains of southern Calabria ItalyThe land of Nicola Fortugno is his life. On Wednesday, when flames engulfed Piraino, a small village surrounded by pine forests above the town of Cardetto, the 79-year-old refused to evacuate. Instead, he stayed at home trying to save his animals and crops. Firefighters found his burned, lifeless body.
Francesca Crea, the owner of a newspaper in Cardetto, said: “In the past, I would see Nicola every time he went into the city to see the drugstore or the doctor.” “His death was very painful. Because we are a community dominated by farmers, people have made huge sacrifices for a small piece of land-animals are their treasure.”
As forest fires raged for the 10th consecutive day, communities in the Aspromonte Mountains are calculating the heavy cost of livelihoods and the environment. In recent days, during the intense and long-lasting heat waves that may sweep through Italy, hot winds have hindered efforts to extinguish the fires that have also plagued Sicily, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata and Sardinia. island. Break the European temperature record.
Wildfire also has Large areas of southern Europe have been ravaged In Turkey, the region has experienced the most extreme heat wave in 30 years.
The heat wave is expected to continue in the next few days, with temperatures reaching 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit).
On Thursday morning, the wildfires affecting the Kadeto area were still smoldering. Other talents have just started. In burnt land, blackened rocks, and dozens of burned or collapsed trees, the consequences are obvious.
As of Thursday night, there were 60 fires in Calabria, the highest number of fires in Italy, prompting the government headed by Prime Minister Mario Draghi to announce a national emergency plan. Draghi’s office said in a statement: “We will launch a plan to provide compensation to the affected people and businesses, as well as an extraordinary reforestation and safety plan.”
Five people have been confirmed to have died in the fire: four in Calabria, one in Sicily, and a 30-year-old farmer was crushed by a tractor while trying to extinguish the flames on his farm in Paterno, a small town near Catania die.
The deaths in Calabria have all occurred in the Aspromonte Mountains, home to a vast national park with a beech tree with a history of hundreds of years, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO this year. A woman and her nephew were killed while trying to save their olive grove; a 76-year-old man died after leaving home, trying to protect his distribution.
At the same time, hundreds of pilgrims who walked to the religious site in Lucca town were forced to turn back when the flames enveloped the road.
Angela Tesorone and her brother Alfonso were forced to flee due to the spread of fire on Monday night in the town of Rocafort del Greco with about 400 residents in the center of Aspromonte National Park. “This is the worst wildfire I have ever experienced,” said Tesorone, who owns a company that produces olive oil. “People have died; animals have died; acres of forest and farmland have been destroyed. What is left is ashes.”
With the assessment of the scale of the damage, people are becoming more and more angry about the way wildfires are handled, and many Calabrians have pointed out a series of mistakes-including the Matteo Renzi government disbanded the National Forestry Force in 2016 -They think this has exacerbated the situation in this summer’s heat wave.
Others said that the central government’s reinforcements to fight the fire came too late. This week, the army was sent to Calabria, and staff from the Italian Civil Defense Department were also sent to Calabria. In addition, 2,500 forestry experts and volunteers from Calabria Verde participated in the fire fighting.
“The entire team is working on the entire territory,” said Giuseppe Oliva, Special Commissioner of Calabria and Cape Verde. “This year’s weather conditions have made the fire very difficult to extinguish.”
Italy’s main farmers’ association Cordiretti said earlier this month that the number of wildfires in the country has tripled in 2021 compared to the annual average from 2008 to 2020.
Authorities estimate that under these circumstances, nearly 57% of fires are malicious and caused by arsonists or people who wish to benefit from state funding. In some cases, the fire is caused by young people who just want to see how the emergency services are working.
“Less than 2% are caused by nature, such as lightning strikes. The cause of 4.4% has not been determined, and 22% are cases that cannot be classified. In these cases, it is difficult to know what caused the fire,” said Robb, Italian Minister of Ecological Transformation. Said Roberto Cingolani.
Sitting outside a bar in a small village near Cardeto, Marco Bruno has no doubt that human negligence caused the fire in the Aspromonte Mountains. Thousands of people died in 2003 and large forests were destroyed by wildfires Europe During the intense heat wave, the maintenance of Aspromonte Forest was entrusted to non-profit organizations. Only when these organizations successfully limit fires in their designated areas to less than 1% will they receive most of the payments. This system resulted in a significant reduction in the number of wildfires and was abolished in 2013.
“I have never seen anything like a fire this summer,” Bruno said. “All this is due to poor forest management. We used to have an effective system where experienced people knew what they were doing. Now there is not enough monitoring or maintenance, and this is the consequence.”
