Fires in Italy have already killed five and threaten to reach UNESCO heritage sites

At least five people died in Italy because of the fires which devoured hectares of forests in Sicily, Sardinia and especially Calabria, in the south of the country. Several municipalities have already been evacuated and areas declared Unesco heritage they are threatened by flames.

Among the last three victims, who joined the two farmers who died a few days ago in Calabria, is a 77-year-old man who died in his country house due to a fire in Grotteria, in the province of Reggio Calabria, while he tried to save his animals.

Also in Calabria, a 79-year-old man was found dead near his home in Cardeto after a fire, while the third victim was another farmer run over by a tractor when he fought the flames that ravaged his home in Paterno, Sicily.

The high temperatures that have exceeded 45 degrees and the strong sirocco wind made several fires stay active in Sicily, where four fronts threaten urban centers and some 800 people had to be evacuated in the towns of Petralia, Soprana and Polizzi Generosa.

This situation led the President of Sicily, Nello Musumeci, to ask the government to declare the emergency state for more help to be sent, in addition to the nearly 5,000 people working to put out the fires.

“We put out a fire and a second later another opens in front of him a few kilometers away,” lamented Salvo Cocina, head of regional civil protection.

For his part, the Under-Secretary of the Interior, Carlo Sibilia, ordered the immediate dispatch of reinforcements to Calabria, one of the most affected areas by the flames, which will arrive in the next few hours 130 firefighters from Lazio, Lombardy, Tuscany, Marche, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, as well as army troops.

The mayor of Reggio Calabria, Giuseppe Falcomata, described the desperate situation in the region. “We are lose our story, our identity is reduced to ashes, our authentic soul burns in the general silence, “wrote the mayor on Facebook, who warned that the region’s forests are still in danger and that the flames” are causing untold damage.

The situation is critical in the municipalities of Roccaforte del Greco, Roghudi, Bagaladi and Cardeto, where the inhabitants of some houses have been evacuated and the flames are approaching the area of ​​the “Valley of Hell” in the town of San Luca, where the hundred-year-old beech grove, classified as a Unesco heritage, is located.

Hundreds of people are working there to create a firebreak that prevents flames from reaching this national park.

According to a report by the largest association of farmers, Coldiretti, since the beginning of the year, the fire has devoured 102,933 hectares in the country, an area like 140,000 football fields and four times the average of 28,479 burned each year from 2008 to 2020.

With information from EFE