L'Aquila: fire 200 meters from Pettino. Arta, benzene and Pm10 values ​​on the rise

Eight hundred hectares of mountains went up in smoke between Cansatessa and Pettino, hamlets of L'Aquila. An overall front of about 4 km in length, made up of isolated outbreaks that do not allow a homogeneous intervention and an active fight against the flames. The strategy is to isolate the individual outbreaks with fire lines, horizontally downstream and vertically from the top of the mountain. "We must not make the flames reach the town of Pettino - said Silvio Liberatore, director of the Civil Protection of the Abruzzo Region - the fire is 200 meters from the houses, but we will prevent by any means that it approaches the town and gains ground towards L 'Eagle".

Downstream there are the men of the municipal, regional and voluntary civil protection , who are digging the lines with mechanical means. At the top there are 50 men among firefighters, civil protection, volunteers with chainsaws and men of the army with a forerunner. There are also 10 firefighting modules with hoses. Meanwhile, the launches of water and retarding liquid of air vehicles continue. Canadair and helicopters, which fly from the first light of the morning, are supplied between the Campotosto lake and the Vetoio lake.  

Meanwhile, the national experimentation of a georeferencing protocol carried out with drones with thermal imaging cameras of the specialized Fire Brigade sector is underway in the skies of L'Aquila. 12 drones fly over the fires of Arischia and Cansatessa, which collect the coordinates of the points of the outbreaks and transmit them directly to the air vehicles to allow them to make selective launches on the hot areas of the fire. The same data are also transmitted to the ground teams, coordinated by the DOS (Shutdown Operations Director), to direct the interventions in a precise way on the active outbreaks. Experimentation for the collection of data on wind behavior is also underway in these hours. The protocol, currently being defined, will make it possible to draw an overall and detailed picture of the nature and movement of the fire front. The fires of L'Aquila are making school in Italy for the use of drones: in the capital there is the Central School of Training and Experimentation of the Body (located in the Regional Command of L'Aquila), where drone pilots are trained, tested new technologies and rescue procedures are created. There are 9 drone cores of the Fire Brigade, throughout Italy, and the fleet is made up of 80 aircraft.    

 According to what emerges from the Arta analyzes, confirmed by the director Maurizio Dionisio, the values ​​of benzene, which is a product of wood combustion, and Pm10, fine particles increase. These are the results of the monitoring that are taking place in L'Aquila in these hours following the two serious fires between Arischia and Cansatessa. For benzene the values ​​are at the limit of the allowed on an annual basis, while the Pm10 are even evident in the city due to the fumes and ashes. The Arta advises, even if the decisions are up to the ASL, to keep the windows closed and avoid exposing yourself.