25 years after Sarno events: the Department's Honorary Citizenship from the Municipality

"For the very high sense of duty and noble spirit of solidarity provided by its personnel, making a decisive contribution to the general relief work for the population of Sarno, hard hit by the disastrous mudslides on the tragic date of May 5, 1998."

This is the motivation with which the Municipality of Sarno conferred honorary citizenship on the Civil Protection Department, 25 years after the events that devastated, with hundreds of landslides and 160 deaths, the municipalities of Bracigliano, Quindici, Siano, San Felice a Cancello and, precisely, Sarno, as well as other towns in the Salerno and Naples areas.

The Head of the Department, Fabrizio Curcio, accepted the award. "The wounds of Sarno are still a living memory and a lesson for the future. Prevention and attention to the territory must be part of our present, everyday" he said.

A very heartfelt recognition was given by the city of Sarno to Franco Barberi, Undersecretary at the Ministry of the Interior delegated to civil protection at the time of the events, who personally followed all the activities. The professor, who attended the ceremony, was awarded a Solemn Citation, a "symbolic act to express deep gratitude for the generous, constant and professional contribution" that "acted as a driving force for all of us and helped us to gradually relieve the deep wounds that our City had suffered"
The Department also received a Civic Recognition from the City of Siano: "Deep gratitude for the fundamental relief work in the hours of the tragedy with the providential contribution of people and means to cope with the emergency after the flood of May 1998".