Wood fires 2011: awareness raising initiatives go on

The awareness campaign, part of the Wood Firefighting 2011 Campaign, is intensifying. The first broadcasting phase of wood fire spots commences on 9 July on the three national channel and will go on until 13 July. A cartoon explains what to do in case of fire and how to raise the alarm – “calling the number 1515 or 115” – and reminds which behaviour to be avoided, underlining that  “you too are the civil protection”.

The initiative, created by the Civil Protection Department in collaboration with the National Forest Corps and Fire Department, belongs to a wider radio/tv spots broadcast that advise on behaviours to adopt in case of seasonal risks, e.g. wood fires, flooding, heat waves and black out risks.

Wood firefighting school camps "I am the civil protection too" go on in July and August, involving over 3,500 youngster aged 9 to 18 throughout Italy for a training week to experience life in the woods and team play.The objective is to make young people aware of the active and participating role that anyone can play in environmental, territorial and human safeguard.

From July 15 to 30 the "Do not play with fire" campaign for fire risk monitoring, prevention and mitigation, created by the Department in collaboration with Legambiente is back. This year, events will be concentrated in five regions with higher fire risk: Calabria, Campania, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia. Citizens of all ages and local administrators will be involved in the protection and promotion of the territory.

The initiative has been realized within the project Fire Ecosystem, the annual monitoring of the actions of municipal governments in mitigating the risk of forest fires that has the objective of verifying the implementation of the Framework Law.