Gaia pianigiani
07/27/2021 12:40
Clarín.com
The New York Times International Weekly
Updated 07/27/2021 12:40 PM
Around 1,000 residents and tourists have been
evacuated
from areas of western Sardinia that were ravaged by forest fires over the weekend, with the Italian island's forests, pastures and villages engulfed in flames.
"It is an unprecedented catastrophe," said the region's governor, Christian Solinas, invoking the state of emergency on Sunday.
At least 20,000 hectares of land have been burned.
Photo Alessandro Tocco / LaPresse, via Associated Press.
According to the Italian authorities, there have been no deaths or injuries.
However, the fires were still raging on Monday, when four firefighting planes from
France and Greece
joined the air fleet of
Italian
firefighters
to help control the flames.
Since the early hours of Saturday, when the fire started near a forest in the town of Bonacardo, at least 20,000 hectares of land have burned.
Hundreds of sheep, goats, cows and pigs died when they were
trapped
in farm stables that were in the path of the fire, despite the efforts of emergency workers to save them.
On Sunday evening, Italian Prime Minister
Mario Draghi
expressed "full solidarity" with those affected by the fires and offered his support to the firefighters who work tirelessly.
Footage recorded by Italian firefighters showed a thick layer of smoke engulfing residential buildings, warehouses and barns, and flames burning high just behind
beachside villas
in the city of Porto Alabe, a popular tourist spot. more than 40 kilometers north of where the fires started.
The llamas crossed hectares of cork and holm oak forests native to the region.
An
ancient olive tree
that was the symbol of the town of Cuglieri, located on top of the hill, was
destroyed
by fire.
"This morning, the trunk was still burning," Maria Giovanna Campus, a retired local archaeologist, wrote on Facebook last Sunday, posting images of the dead tree, with the trunk charred by fire and the branches hanging from the ground.
"We had proudly signaled its presence to tourists, but we ended up neglecting it and leaving it at the mercy of the flames," he said, adding that "
cleaning the area
around it would have been enough to protect and preserve it."
The cause of the fires was not yet clear.
But experts said that preventing forest fires requires keeping forests and pastures clean and creating buffer zones.
In affected areas of Sardinia and elsewhere in Italy, abandoned land is often not well maintained, which can help spread the fire, they said.
Forest fires are common in the dry Mediterranean environment of Sardinia in summer, especially when warm winds blow from the southwest on days when temperatures reach 40 degrees, as has happened in recent days.
"These are extraordinary fires because of their magnitude, but also ordinary because of the time of year and the speed, unfortunately," said Gianfilippo Micillo, head of the Italian firefighters' forest fire coordination department.
"Summer fires in Sardinia, with so much dry vegetation, strong winds and high temperatures, occur every year. These fires create their own microclimate and spread very quickly."
Micillo said Italy was experiencing an
increase
in wildfires this year, as they do every four to five years, when low shrubbery and bushes grow large enough in desert areas to become fuel for an accidentally, or intentionally, ignited spark. , by human activity.
Italy has recorded nearly
13,000
more
forest fires
than last year, mostly in the southern regions of
Apulia, Calabria and Sicily
, according to firefighters.
Micillo also said that, until 10 years ago, fires used to break out in the Alpine regions in winter and in central and southern Italy during the summer.
Now, the forest fires have spread in time and in the area, as temperatures continue to be higher until October and the vegetation dries up.
"And these new phenomena are related to climate change," said Micillo, "since Italy is undoubtedly getting
hotter
."
Climate change-related fires have devastated parts of the western
United States
and
Canada
this summer as extreme heat and drought have dried up vegetation.
c.2021 The New York Times Company
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