We will remember it as thesummer of forest-burningfires. More than two hundred fires in Abruzzo alone. In Lazio the situation was even worse, with a 1700% increase in outbreaks compared to the year before. The final balance of the summer of 2017 is impressive: more than five thousand hectares of land were devastated by flames, in the two regions crossed by the A24 and A25.
August 2017 was the hottest August in 60 years. It was the high temperatures, which rose 4-6 degrees above average, and the drought – rainfall was reduced by 60 percent during this period – that unleashed the scourge of fires between Abruzzo and Lazio, triggered by the madness of men. Arsonists who have been particularly dogged in the protected areas of central Italy, in the green heart of Europe.
The numbers for the summer of fires are dramatic: in Abruzzo, where a state of fire emergency has been declared , there have been more than 200 fires. The hardest hit areas were Marsica, the Peligna Valley, theVestina Area and protected nature areas. The heaviest price was paid by the mountains of Morrone, in Majella Park: 10 days of fire, 412 Canadair launches, 386 helicopter launches, more than a hundred firefighters engaged on the spot joined by hundreds of volunteers and even the army. An average of one million liters of water per day were released to stem the fury of the flames.
Terrible also the toll on wildlife. Sixty percent of the fires in Abruzzo involved forested areas of territories where protected species lived.
In Lazio, a large fire has broken out in the Monte Giano area in the province of Rieti, spreading for several kilometers, reaching as far as the border with L’Aquila. In the area of Cittareale, a municipality already affected by the earthquake, a fire affected the mountain on two fronts, even reaching as far as the town center. In the Rieti area, on the other hand, the slope of Amatrice was also approached by flames, putting the hamlets of Aleggia and Forcelle at risk. Numerous outbreaks also broke out in the province of Frosinone, causing moments of fear with flames reaching just a few meters from homes.
A total of 124 hectares of forest burned in Italy in 2017, anarea almost as large as the entire city of Rome.
In the Abruzzo and Lazio mountains affected by the fires, entire pine forests and naturalistic areas have been destroyed. It will take at least 15 years to get the burned forests back. The wounds of an area so beautiful and so fragile remain open, vulnerable and exposed to the destructive madness of a few men. Let’s call them that.
