Construction, Micele (VVFF): “Correlation between fires and social critical areas”

Milan, 18 April. – “For me it is a pleasure to see that the protection of the city from fire is a theme on the agenda of these States General”. Thus begins Nicola Micele, provincial commander of the Milan Fire Brigade, at the “General States of digital engineering”, organized by the Order of Engineers of the Province of Milan at the Civic Aquarium, to build the technological future of Milan and the country.

“Milan is a city that has been experiencing incredible development for some decades now: there are urban regeneration projects that are redeveloping entire zones and areas of the city,” continues Micele. “The issue of fire risk is an issue that must be addressed at the same time as the development of the city. We shouldn’t talk about fire prevention practices, but about projects. There can be no fire prevention design after the design of the building,” continued Micele. “Fire in homes is a fairly recurrent type of intervention. The Milan command carries out an average of 30 thousand rescue operations in the provincial territory every year.”, Micele reels off the data.

“We intervene on average in 900 fires in apartments in a year. We georeferenced our interventions to understand if there were any correlations. We expected what emerged: the municipalities with a higher average age are those that have a greater number of fires. Just like the municipalities that have some critical social issues, they are the municipalities that have a higher incidence of fires in apartments. There is this correlation between areas of social deprivation and the number of fires in civil buildings. Normally, deaths due to fire in apartments occur in areas of buildings where the occupants have more difficulty in reaching safety, therefore where there are older people or where there are people with disabilities”.