National Functional Centre for Forest Fire Risk
The National Functional Centre, forest fire risk section, issues a daily bulletin of forest fire susceptibility for the whole of Italy, identifying three hazard levels for each province (low – medium – high). The three hazard levels correspond to three different situations:
• low hazard: the event requires only the usual ordinary means without any special deployment of personnel;
• medium hazard: the event requires rapid efficient response from the active fire fighting system;
• high hazard: the event may reach dimensions of a size that will almost certainly require intervention by the State air fleet.
CFC predictions are based not only on weather and climate conditions, but also on vegetation, the physical condition and use of the earth, and also the morphology and organisation of the land. The bulletin only gives a provincial-scale prediction, estimating the average value of fire susceptibility in a period of time for the next 24 hours and trends for the following 48.
In addition to a written part that includes both the expected weather forecast and a summary table for forecasted conditions that would favour fires and the propagation of fires in each province, the bulletin also includes graphics giving mapped hazard levels.
By 4.00 pm every day, the bulletin is sent to the Regional Authorities and Autonomous Provincial Authorities, Prefetture (central governmental institutions on a provincial level), Forestry Corps and Fire Service.