Scorching heat and wildfires are raging in southern Italy, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes, and many of the fires are linked to arson, the BBC writes.
The agricultural organization Coldiretti states that around 60% of forest fires are caused by arson.
In Calabria, local residents told the BBC that the reasons are various – simply clumsy farmers and neighbors who cheat and want insurance compensation. The ferocious heat and drought caused by climate change are only making things worse.
In this part of Italy, fires not only force evacuations and turn everything into ashes, but they also destroy the history and ecology of the land. When the BBC goes on a drive around the hills in Calabria’s gorgeous Aspromotes National Park, burnt-out wrecks can be seen on the sides of the road. In the last two years,
flames have damaged a church in Sicily and destroyed several hundred years old olive tree in Puglia.
A tragic event struck Calabria this week – one of Calabria’s oldest folk musicians, Diego Aquilino, died in a fire.
The president of the Calabria region, Roberto Occhiuto, made harsher observations than Coldiretti, saying that up to 80% of the fires started as arson. Both he and representatives of local authorities stress that they are building a system to prevent arson, including using flying robots to monitor areas from the air.
Un pirómano fue grabado por un dron mientras provocaba incendios en un cañaveral del sur de Italia, en la región de Calabriax ? https://t.co/aKPa62BuzR pic.twitter.com/bPwYwWHCcE
— 20minutos.es (@20m) July 27, 2023
There is also legislation to deal with arsonists.
Some human-caused fires are not intentional. Occhiuto pointed out that
sometimes it is clumsy farmers who decide to fight weeds by burning them.
Everyone in Calabria who was willing to speak to the BBC seems to have their own version of the origin of the fires. Some even believe that the fires are started by the firefighters themselves in order to attract the attention of local governments and receive more funding. Another person mentions bad relations between neighbors in rural areas or shepherds who want to turn forests into pastures. On the other hand, others think that one of them is arsonists who just want to sow chaos.
Giada Nicolò’s family home in southern Calabria nearly burned to the ground and she barely managed to save her elderly relatives and told the BBC: “All these fires are started by people. Fires like these don’t start on their own. It’s arsonists, I’m absolutely convinced.
What they don’t realize is that they are hurting people, and putting lives at risk.”
Forest fires also damage the surrounding environment. Coldiretti’s representative, Francesco Giardina, said that it takes at least 15 years for the forest to regenerate. Italian police this week arrested a 79-year-old man on suspicion of starting a fire that destroyed 30 hectares of olive groves in central Sicily.
Read also: Fires in the Mediterranean claim 40 lives