Fires in Monte Morrone: Marsilio, 'Insufficient helicopters, integrated action necessary'

Our Civil Protection helicopters are doing an extraordinary job and work perfectly, but their action alone is not enough. Complicating the operations was the failure that stopped the first planes sent from Rome. In agreement with the Head of the Civil Department we obtained immediate restoration with the sending of three new national Canadairs. The president of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsilio, said this while chairing an operational meeting on the emergencies linked to the fires that have been affecting Monte Morrone for days. "We are faced with a fire of very serious dimensions, favored by an impervious mountain and strong winds that insist on the Tremonti Gorge. Unfortunately we are faced with phenomena which, in the vast majority of cases, have a malicious origin." On the intervention front, the integrated response involves coordinated action between heaven and earth. "The air attack alone is like throwing a glass of water on a chimney, if you don't intervene decisively on the ground. For this reason we have activated the Army departments, in particular the Military Engineers from Rome, who with special means are opening and widening paths and roads. This allows both the land vehicles of the Fire Brigade and Civil Protection to pass through and to create firebreaks of 10 to 30 meters to block the advance of the flames. The directive is clear: zero bureaucracy, all bulldozers and machinery must operate immediately."