Giorgio Armani, after being evacuated from his home due to the fire on the Italian island of Pantelleria: "40 years of my life, it's not fair"

A fire on the Italian island of Pantelleria has caused the evacuation of dozens of tourists, including Giorgio Armani.

The 88-year-old designer owns a vacation home on this exclusive island, which lies between Sicily and Tunisia.

The flames reached the doors of his house, a spokeswoman for the fashion firm has confirmed.

“40 years of my life, it's not fair.

For me and for Pantelleria.

Having to escape like this, at night”, Armani told

, a newspaper that gives a detailed account of the events.

The couturier would have had to take refuge in his boat, taking a few belongings in just a few minutes.

Vicenzo Campo, the island's mayor, told the Italian news agency Ansa that the fire was probably arson.

The high temperatures and the wind served as natural fuel in a particularly dramatic summer for the fires in Europe.

The fire started in Kamma and Gadir, two of the most exclusive places on the island, where luxury villas dot the

Mediterranean

In addition to Armani, among the evacuees are several familiar faces from that country, such as the presenter Myrta Merlino, her partner, former soccer player Marco Tardelli, or the journalist and writer Francesca Barra.

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Pantelleria, Giorgio Armani's dream refuge

Many well-known faces from the Italian and world scene spend the summer in this area.

Sting, Naomi Campbell, Isabella Rossellini and Gérard Depardieu are regulars on this tiny island, closer to Tunisia than to the Italian mainland.

Armani bought a piece of land here in 1981. He built a

(a typical house in the area for millennia, built in stone), with a white domed roof.

Friends like Madonna, Ornella Muti or Claudia Cardinale passed by there.

Also some recurring Armani models, who turned the island into a magnet for the rich and famous.

The flames behind Giorgio Armani's villa on the island of Pantaleria, in a photo distributed by the couturier's press officeHONS (AP)

Il Corriere della Sera

has made a detailed reconstruction of the events in the couturier's home, with the help of his team.

“It is around 8:10 p.m. when the designer sees the flames from his house in Gadir,” he starts.

“He can't sit down.

Just a few seconds.

Then he gets up.

He goes in and out.

Ask.

His collaborators go up and down.

Time, five minutes and the order arrives.

Peremptory: 'Mr Armani, we have to go'.

Everyone to the vans, in two minutes.

The designer is the one who is calmer”.

The account of the events narrates the desperation and frustration faced by any evacuee with these characteristics.

He describes, with the pulse of a novelist, the couturier's flight from his house to the port, where his boat is.

The 10-kilometre route lasts 40 because the fire is spreading across the small island.

During the drive, Armani wonders about the welfare of his neighbors.

“The people who have been evacuated are fine.

They have only been very scared ”, explained the mayor.

The fire is now under control, according to firefighters.