The period of serious danger for forest fires in Campania comes into force tomorrow, 15 June, and will last four months until 15 October and includes 5 important prevention measures.
To safeguard the woodland heritage, the ban is in place: on lighting open fires in the pastures and woods and up to a distance of 100 meters from the woods themselves; of combustion of vegetal, agricultural and forestry residues; to burn stubble and weeds, even uncultivated ones; to light fireworks, launch rockets of any type and paper hot air balloons, the so-called “flying lanterns”, equipped with open flames, as well as other pyrotechnic articles at a distance of no less than 1 kilometer from wooded areas and pastures, unless specific exceptions are made ; in the woods and pastures to use engines or stoves that produce embers or sparks, use flame or electric appliances to cut metals, explode mines, smoke or carry out any other action that could create a mediate or immediate fire danger such as, for example, throw away matches or lit cigarettes, park vehicles on unpaved roads in wooded areas.
There are numerous requirements for the competent authorities: for example, precautions are required for military exercises as well as for the transit of trains in wooded areas; private concessionaires of external LPG and diesel systems, in fixed tanks, for domestic or commercial use, must keep the area surrounding the tank clear and free of vegetation for a radius of no less than 6 metres; the owners or holders of wooded areas are required to provide for brush cutting on the sides of the woods; along the perimeter of wooded areas, a buffer zone must be created, free of vegetation, such as to delay or prevent the spread of fires.
The Civil Protection of the Campania Region draws the attention of the mayors, “to the need to strengthen reconnaissance, surveillance, sighting and alarm activities for forest fires on their territory, also making use of voluntary civil protection associations, as well as to raise awareness among citizens and the trade associations of farmers and breeders, promoting the culture of civil protection and the correct rules of conduct for the protection of the environment”. And it recalls the obligation for Municipalities to establish and update the register of areas affected by fire, as well as to draft and update the civil protection plan which also includes the risk of forest and interface fires.
