70 years after the establishment of the Air Component of the National Fire Brigade, and 40 for the Flight Department of the Campania Fire Brigade in Pontecagnano (SA), tomorrow 20 June, an important anniversary will be celebrated, with a ceremony during which the photographic volume of Massimo Sestini: “The Flight of the Dragons. The Air Component of the Fire Brigade in a story through images”.
For the territory of “Lattari Mountains Regional Park” the work of this special department is one of the most precious, since the increasingly numerous episodes of forest fires on the Amalfi Coast can be contained almost only thanks to their intervention: with its narrow valleys and steep ridges peak over the sea, it is an ideal territory for the attack of nature terroristsunscrupulous arsonists who, thanks to a mostly inaccessible territory, manage to act undisturbed, given that the monitoring implemented by local administrations is still completely insufficient.
Their contribution is also valuable regarding rescue operations on the coastal paths, traveled annually by thousands of tourists, many of whom are unaware of the dangers on these impervious routes.
The history of this special fire department is fascinating:
The first “intuition” of using a helicopter for rescue and firefighting in Italy was born in Campania and came to a young engineer from the 54th Fire Brigade of Naples, Domenico Andriello. In June 1947, he observed the first Sikorsky helicopter to arrive in Italy take off from the American cruiser USS Columbus and land, to general amazement, in via Caracciolo in Naples. And it is precisely a Sikorsky 551 that the young Andriello depicted in an article published in the first issue of the Antinferno magazine in 1949. The opportunity to create an aerial component for the Corps materialized in 1952 when ten Bell 47G helicopters arrived from the United States of America to be assembled. Officer Andriello from Naples with his colleague Coppi from Modena convinced the General Directorate of Fire Services to purchase 3 helicopters, which were assigned to their commands and naturally to Rome.
The air component of the Fire Brigade was born!
In 1954, after the completion of the courses, the Naples nucleus became operational. At the same time, the first VF pilots were sent to piloting courses: among others, Lieutenant Domenico Padula, from Naples, who fell during a duty flight and was awarded a silver medal for military valor. We remember alongside him the pilot Walter Sorella, who crashed in Salerno, and two Neapolitan pilots who perished in Friuli. Since 12 July 1984 the Campania Flight Department has been operational at its current headquarters in Pontecagnano Faiano, in the province of Salerno. Today the Corps has modern Agusta Westland AW139s, fixed-wing aircraft in addition to the State forest firefighting fleet which includes 19 Canadairs and 6 Erickson S64s.
The regional authorities and the Province of Salerno and the political, administrative and technical leaders of the Department of Fire Brigade, Public Rescue and Civil Defense will be present at the event.
