Central, southern Italy ablaze with forest, brush fires
Pastor Dale Morgan
Central, southern Italy ablaze with forest, brush fires*
ROME, July 23 (AFP) Jul 23, 2007
Forest and brush fires on Monday engulfed parts of central and southern
Italy amid searing temperatures, with firefighters battling some 1,500
blazes in the past 24 hours, officials said.
More than 8,000 firefighters, 1,700 firetrucks and 10 helicopters have
been deployed along with 21 planes including 13 "Scoopers" used to drop
water on fires.
"Today new fires broke out in (southern) Calabria and in Sicily and
Sardinia," public safety director Luigi d'Angelo told AFP.
An emergency services spokesman said three major operations were under
way Monday afternoon near the central Italian town of Gubbio, near
Catania in Sicily and around railway lines at San Giuliano Milanese,
near northern Milan.
The fire outside Milan caused a halt in national rail traffic for about
an hour and a half in the middle of the day.
"We've received 70 calls in the past 24 hours, which is twice the daily
average for the season," D'Angelo said.
Nearly 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of brush and forest burned in Italy
in the first two weeks of July, forestry officials said.
A surge in fires in recent days has been blamed on a combination of high
winds and soaring temperatures.
Eleven cities -- including Rome, Venice, Naples and Palermo -- are on
"high alert" for heat-related health problems amid temperatures
exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places.
A public safety warning said temperatures would remain high until at
least Wednesday in the south, with a peak of 41.3 degrees Celsius (106
Fahrenheit) predicted Tuesday in Catania, Sicily, and 39.2 degrees in Rome.