The Madonie are squeezed by the emergency of the fires. From Petralia Soprana to Gratteri, passing through Isnello and Aliminusa, the flames are devouring hectares of forest, devastating the Gibilmanna area and threatening to reach as far as Cefalù. Just from Cefalù last night the alarm went off for a fire front which, which broke out in Pianetti in the Gratteri area, immediately expanded because it was pushed and fed by the strong wind. The firefighters, the firefighting teams of the Civil Protection and the men of the forestry worked with great difficulty. Several times the mayor of Cefalù, Daniele Tumminello, asked the Prefecture of Palermo to send a canadair but seven aircraft operated for the whole day, mainly engaged in containing the fires that surrounded Palermo and skirted the Falcone and Borsellino airport. Only in the late afternoon did a Canadair start operating between Gratteri and Gibilmanna.
The front that started from Gratteri took two directions. At the top it aimed at Isnello, where it was stopped after having created a tall column of smoke also visible from Castelbuono, and at the bottom it moved towards Cefalù uniting the districts of Ferla and Carbonara. “Throughout the night and the whole day – Mayor Tumminello said – only the local teams operated in this area and worked with serious difficulties even to reach the critical points of the fire”. Another large fire broke out in the Raffo district near the rock salt mines of Petralia Soprana. Here too the front took two directions: one towards the Equila district and the other towards the Peri district. From here the flames reached the state road 120. Then they spread towards Gangi. The situation is also serious in Aliminusa, Alimena and Cerda where the flames have destroyed the forest and the mountain above and have approached the houses creating moments of panic.
In the photo the fire in Gratteri
