Fighting fires in Sicily, Region’s tender to rent two helicopters remains deserted – BlogSicilia

The fight against fires in Sicily starts with the “handbrake”. The Region’s tender to rent two maxi helicopters capable of transporting five thousand liters of water remains deserted. In fact, no one came forward. At the moment, the main weapon to deal with the foreseeable summer emergency of fires is not there. There were 14 million on the table.

Even in Sardinia the same outcome

Same outcome also in Sardinia where a tender had been published to rent the same type of helicopters (5 thousand litres) but even in that case no one came forward.

And to say that these latest generation helicopters could give the extra push to fight the flames more vehemently even on sirocco days.

According to the first analysis, the companies that have these helicopters prefer to wait for calls from the Civil Protection (since they can transport various useful material in emergencies) or from the bodies that intervene in war zones to provide aid.

Second call

Zero “heavy” helicopters and 14 million more to invest for the Region. The Environment Department wants to try again despite the less than comforting precedents. The Sicilian air fleet in view of the summer remains composed of 10 light 400 liter helicopters, already rented through a previous tender.

Pagana, “Firefighting campaign will begin two months early”

Furthermore, the Region is already certain that it will be able to employ forestry workers responsible for prevention and firefighting earlier and for longer. “The fire prevention campaign – reiterated the department led by Elena Pagana – will begin two months in advance. Furthermore, the workers who are hired for 151 days will be able to carry out the entire period of work in the fire service without having to collaborate on other fronts”.

Prevention activities will begin on May 15th

The season of prevention activities will begin on May 15th. There remains the possibility of obtaining other helicopters from Rome whenever there are emergencies that will make the regional fleet insufficient.