Civil protection: forest fire-fighting summer campaign is underway
The national fleet will count on 30 aircraft during the peak season.
The summer forest fire campaign formally starts today. The recommendations of the President of the Council of Ministers - addressed to Regions, Autonomous Provinces and interested Ministries - are available on the website www.protezionecivile.gov.it.
The past summer forest fire campaign 2020 has involved the system in all its components both regional and national without any criticality in the operational response capacity.
The recommendations underline that "as demonstrated by last year's fires, forest fires will continue to characterize our country regardless of the concomitant pandemic emergency. It is therefore advisable to prepare in time all the necessary actions in order not to frustrate the efforts made by the forest firefighting system in our country in recent years".
The document recalls in full the specific operational recommendations published in the Official Gazette no. 126 of May 28, 2021 and sent to all the administrations involved in various capacities in the activities of forecasting, prevention and active fight against forest fires, in order to promote more synergistic action of the regional and state components and to identify priorities for action.
For the summer season 2021, the national fleet in the period of maximum commitment will count on 30 aircraft - of which 23 of the National Fire Brigade (15 Canadair, 5 Erickson S64F helicopters and another 3 AB-412) and 7 of the Defense (5 helicopters of the Armed Forces and 2 helicopters of the Carabinieri).
As part of the European project "RescEU-IT", two Canadair helicopters deployed on Italian territory, if not used for national needs, will be activated, at the request of Brussels, in one of the other EU countries that may find themselves in critical situations. The EU project ensures additional resources to support countries engaged in responding to disasters of particular magnitude, even outside the European Union.
The use of the national fleet will, as always, be coordinated by the Centro Operativo Aereo Unificato (COAU) of the Civil Protection Department.