The President of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsilio, with a specific ordinance has set the period of serious danger of forest fires across the entire regional territory from 15 June to 15 October 2024.
In the same ordinance the duration of the AIB (anti-forest fire) campaign is also indicated, which this year will start on 8 July and end on 15 September, unless extended or brought forward.
For the entire period of the AIB Campaign, the Permanent Unified Operations Room (SOUP) will be active and will also make use of the human and instrumental resources of the Fire Brigade and Forestry Carabinieri – according to existing agreements – as well as regional staff and voluntary organizations which operate under an agreement with the Abruzzo Region.
In the promulgated provisionany useful initiative to increase the protection of the regional environmental heritage is also delegated to the Regional Civil Protection Agency.
“This year too, the regional civil protection system will respond very effectively to the plague of forest fires,” said the Director of the Regional Civil Protection Agency, Mauro Casinghini. “Our Volunteers, in collaboration with the Fire Brigade and the Forestry Carabinieri, are ready to deal with any needs that we hope will not occur”.
Casinghini’s intervention concludes with the hope that “all citizens, as usual, will act as ‘lookouts’ in the area to alert the regional system through the Single Emergency Number 1 1 2 in the event of forest fires that put the enormous heritage at risk forest of our region”.
During the “Period of serious danger for forest fires” in wooded areas, as required by regional law no. 3 of 4 January 2014, the following provisions and prohibitions are implemented:
a) it is forbidden to light fires, set off mines, use flame or electric devices to cut metals, use motors, stoves or incinerators that produce sparks or embers, as well as carry out any other operation that could create a medium or immediate risk of fire;
b) it is forbidden to park cars equipped with a catalytic converter on meadows or in the woods;
c) in public or private landfills it is mandatory to proceed with the systematic covering of waste with inert material;
d) in landfills it is forbidden to proceed with the burning of waste as a method of eliminating it;
e) the landfill manager is obliged to immediately extinguish any fires that may arise;
f) in the period from 1 June to 30 September of each year, the lighting of fires within the limit of 200 meters from the extreme edge of the forest is in any case prohibited;
g) in the period from 1 June to 30 September of each year it is forbidden to throw lit matches, cigars or cigarettes from moving vehicles.
In general, for the purposes of the provisions of the aforementioned regional law and the aforementioned presidential ordinance, all the regional forest heritage, characterized by the presence of three National Parks, a Regional Park and numerous nature reserves, is considered an area at risk of forest fire and therefore It is forbidden for anyone to light fires within these areas.
