There are 32 fines imposed by the Municipality of Partinico in 2023 for failure to clean uncultivated land. The fines were notified by the municipal police and amount to 250 euros each, to which the notification costs are added. These are high reports for violations relating to the fire ordinance issued last year by Mayor Pietro Rao, who was among the first mayors in Sicily to have issued directives for cleaning the land and all the necessary precautions. The fines came following fires that occurred last summer and which were found to have been fueled by uncultivated land.
The municipal police, therefore, traced the owners of the various parcels affected by the flames through cadastral searches. “The fire ordinances often remain a dead letter – says the mayor Pietro Rao – but in Partinico this is not the case. We demonstrated this already last year: the ordinance was followed by checks and also sanctions and it will be the same this year too.” In fact, we continue along the same path: the new ordinance has been issued which substantially follows that of last year. This time too, Partinico was among the first Sicilian municipalities to have issued directives to landowners.
The document requires that all citizens, including the owners of areas interfering with the railway site, ensure that their land is made safe by the mandatory deadline of 14 June. Various obligations are imposed: brush clearing and removal of brushwood, brambles, hay, branches and dry vegetation in general, waste and any other material that could be a source of fire. Furthermore, firebreaks of at least 10 meters must be created near buildings, woods, public and private roads and the railway. In cases where the extension of the land exceeds 3 thousand square metres, the opening of fire avenues of at least 10 meters is permitted in place of cleaning the entire area.
Furthermore, from 15 June to 15 October, near woods, bushy or uncultivated land within the municipal territory, there is a ban on lighting fires, using engines, stoves and incinerators that produce sparks. Furthermore, it will not be possible to use fireworks without prior authorization, issued by the competent bodies, nor to light bonfires, throw cigarette butts from moving vehicles, or park cars carrying catalytic converters in areas covered with grass. All this was essentially decided based on the activation of the necessary forest fire prevention interventions, with particular attention to strategic infrastructures, the road network and areas of environmental and naturalistic importance.
Violations will be subject to specific administrative sanctions. With a view to collaboration and commitment of the entire citizenry in terms of safeguarding the territory, a series of telephone numbers have been made available, starting from the municipal Civil Protection office (091.8913310 or 8913316), the detachment of the Fire Brigade fire (091.8901000), as well as that of the Sicilian Region forestry corps 1515 and the single European emergency number 112.
