4.2.3 Fire Situation in Italy

By
Anna Scipioni,
Bernardo Gabellini,
Franco Caldari
& Roberto Cavalensi

State Forestry Corps,
Forest Fire Protection Service and Statistics Office,
Rome, Italy

Introduction

This report has been compiled by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) based on a publication by Scipioni et al. (1999) which covers the fire situation in Italy in the extreme fire year 1998. Recent (1999 and 2000) and long-term fire data provided by Leone (2000) have been added to Table 4-12 and Table 4-13.

The 1998 Fire Season

Between 1 January and 31 December 1998 9 450 forest fires occurred in Italy, burning a total area of 155 553 ha (73 017 ha wooded and 82 536 ha non-wooded).

Compared to 1997, forest fires worsened greatly, not so much in terms of the number of fires but more in terms of the area burned. The area burned in 1998 was 60 percent higher than the average of the last ten years. The total area affected by forest fires was three times that of 1995 and 1996, despite the increase in defence capabilities. This increase depended largely on the weather conditions. In fact, the summer was the hottest and muggiest of the last six centuries. Compared to the same period, the wooded area affected by fires increased by four times during 1998.

Fire statistics for the 1980s and 1990s are given in Table 4-12 and Table 4-13. In the fire season 2000 more than 10 000 fires burned close to 100 000 ha of forest and other land (Leone 2000).

Table 4-12 Wildfire database for Italy, 1980-1989.

Year	Total No. of Fires on Forest, Other Wooded Land, & Other Land No.	Total Area Burned on Forest, Other Wooded Land, & Other Land ha	Area of Forest Burned ha	Area of Other Wooded Land and Other Land Burned ha	Human Causes No.	Natural Causes No.	Unknown Causes No.
1980	11 963	143 919	45 838	98 081
1981	14 503	229 850	74 287	155 563
1982	9 557	130 456	48 832	81 624
1983	7 956	212 678	78 938	133 740
1984	8 482	75 272	31 077	44 195
1985	18 664	190 640	76 548	114 092
1986	9 398	86 420	26 795	59 625
1987	11 972	120 697	46 040	74 657
1988	13 588	186 405	60 109	126 296
1989	9 669	95 161	45 933	49 228
Average	11 575	147 150	53 440	93 710

Source: Corpo Forestale dello Stato

Table 4-13 Wildfire database for Italy, 1990-1999.

Year	Total No. of Fires on Forest, Other Wooded Land & Other Land No.	Total Area Burned on Forest, Other Wooded Land, & Other Land ha	Area of Forest Burned ha	Area of Other Wooded Land and Other Land Burned ha	Human Causes No.	Natural Causes No.	Unknown Causes No.
1990	14 477	195 319	98 410	96 909
1991	11 965	99 860	30 172	69 688
1992	14 641	105 692	44 522	61 170
1993	14 412	203 749	116 378	87 371
1994	11 588	136 334	47 099	89 235
1995	7 378	48 884	20 995	27 889
1996	9 093	57 988	20 329	37 659
1997	11 612	111 230	62 775	48 455
1998	9 540	155 553	73 017	82 536
1999	6 932	71 117	39 362	31 755
Average	11 1163	118 576	55 305	63 266

Source: Corpo Forestale dello Stato

What is alarming about theses statistic is the average area per fire, which went from 9.6 ha per fire in 1997 to 16.3 ha per fire in 1998. Extending the observation period from January to December, the Regions most affected in terms of the areas affected by fire are consistently Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia. In Calabria, each fire burned an average of 49.2 ha, in Sicily 40 ha and in Abruzzo 32.2 ha, values clearly over the national average registered in the past 10 years.

Forest fires in the last decade have taken on a specific characteristic in terms of time and space, affecting the regions of Southern Italy and the Tyrrhenian Coast mainly during the summer, and the Alpine regions in the winter. Also, in 1998 climate influenced the winter fires: wind and a lack of precipitation made the vegetation prone to fire.

Figure 4-4 Long-term fire statistics of Italy for the period 1970-1998.

Annual number of fires (upper), area affected by fire (middle) and average area burned per fire (lower).

Table 4-14 Forest fires in 1998 in Italy by Region.

Table 4-15 Numbers and area burned by forest fires in Italy in 1998 by month.

Over the winter period of 1998 (January to March), 1 760 fires occurred, burning 15 641 ha (of which 9 525 ha was wooded). This was over ten percent of the wooded area that burned in the entire year of 1998. During the winter, the Regions most affected were, in decreasing order: Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany in terms of total burnt area.

In the summer period of 1998, characterised by prolonged drought, very high temperatures, strong winds and tourism mobility, fires were particularly serious: 6 182 fires occurred (65 percent of the annual total) burning a total area of 115 808 ha (74 percent of the annual total). Of the total area burned, 51 236 ha were wooded (70 percent of the annual total).

The Regions most affected were in decreasing order: Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia, both for the total area burned and for the wooded areas burned. Again, Sardinia, Calabria and Sicily were the Regions that registered the largest number of fires in the summer period (Figure 4-5).

Most fires began on Sundays, confirming the trend of previous years. Highest damages are caused by fires larger than 100 ha. In 1998, such fires affected 54.2 percent of the wooded areas. More than half of all fires (52.1 percent) were fires smaller than one hectare.

Figure 4-5 Left: Areas at risk of forest fires in the first quarter (1989-1999 period). Right: Areas at risk of forest fires in the third quarter (1989-1999 period).

The worst fires of 1998 took place in winter time in Lombardy and Veneto, and in summer time in Calabria and Sicily. In all cases, the average area per fire was extremely high. In Calabria, 17 fires averaged over 1 500 ha in size.

Table 4-16 Number of fires greater than 100 ha affecting wooded land.

The analysis of the percent of fires by the orographic type of territory shows that 61.9 percent of fires developed in the hillsides and 30.9 percent in the mountains (Table 4-17). The majority of fires developed at altitudes under 1 000 m a.s.l. Only 7.4 percent of all fires occurred at altitudes >1 000 m a.s.l.. Conditions of moderate or strong winds favoured the spread of 50.3 percent of fires, while conditions of very strong winds affected one percent of the fires.

Table 4-17 Percentage of wildfires by orographic type of terrain and by altitude in 1998.

Causes of Fires in 1998

The analysis of the causes of fires in 1998 confirms again the high incidence of human responsibility for the destruction of wooded areas affected by fires, as 76.3 percent of the fires were due to deliberate action (Table 4-18). The analysis of accidental causes in 1998 showed that most fires that occurred for these reasons were due to agricultural activity, followed by cigarettes and matches. All of these causes contributed significantly to the starting of fires. Recreational activities had a modest effect, confirming that civic responsibility is continuously increasing among citizens.

Table 4-18 Causes of fires in Italy, 1998.

Fire Impacts

In order to put out fires in 1998, 155 752 interventions were necessary in all of Italy (excluding Sardinia), including forestry personnel, fire brigades, police, armed forces, workers and volunteers.

Unfortunately, fires took victims again in 1998. Six people, specifically one worker, one member of the police force, two citizens and two arsonists died in Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Calabria and Sicily. Eighty-one people were injured, of which 34 were workers and volunteers, 12 were forestry personnel, 13 firemen, 14 from local organizations and 8 arsonists.

The global evaluation of damages in terms of wood destroyed and costs related to the restoration of forest cover amounted to approximately 90 billion lire, of which 60 billion lire for fires caused deliberately.

Fire Suppression

In 1998, the Unified Aircraft Operations Centre co-ordinated the use of aircraft for 1 400 fires, carrying out 2 787 missions for a total of 6 464 hours of flying time. The Aircraft Operations Centre of the State Forestry Corps, which has its own helicopters for firefighting, deploys 13 Breda Nardi NH500 helicopters and nine Agusta Bell 412. The helicopters of the State Forestry Corps operate both in preventive activities and in direct intervention on fires by dropping water from helibuckets. The helicopters of the State Forestry Corps are also used for the transportation of personnel and firefighting equipment. They are also used to coordinate work of other firefighting aircraft sent by the Unified Aircraft Operations Centre of the Civil Protection Forces. The helicopters of the State Forestry Corps are stationed at the main base of Roma–Urbe Airport. They are repositioned over the national territory in high risk periods to reduce as much as possible the time required to respond to fires.

Public policies

The government of Italy supports international cooperation:

• Activation of Resolution No. 3 of the Ministerial Conference of Strasbourg related to the protection of forests in Europe against fires (Strasbourg, 1990). The objective of this Resolution is to facilitate and encourage the exchange of information on forest fires as homogeneous as possible among the various signatory states, with the intention of jointly promoting and improving preventive measures.

• In the sphere of the activities of the ECE/FAO committee, concerning forestry statistics.

• In the Mediterranean basin, in the context of the work of the CFFSA/CEF/CFPO committee regarding Mediterranean forestry questions, "Silva Mediterranea" and the International Centre for Mediterranean Agronomic Studies.

Legal references in the forest fire sector are published by Scipioni et al. (1999).

References

Scipioni, A., Gabellini, B., Caldari, F. & Cavalensi, R. 1999. Forest fires in Italy 1998. Int. Forest Fire News 21: 60-70.

Leone, V. 2000. Italy: fires in summer 2000. Int. Forest Fire News 23 (in press)