The Municipality of Cavallino-Treporti hosted on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 May, a series of preparation activities and a forest, wildland-urban interface and civil fire exercise in the external area of the Amalfi Battery in Ca' Savio.
The initiative, promoted by the Veneto Region, the Metropolitan City of Venice, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region and Slovenian firefighting institutions was supported by the administration, the municipal civil protection office and the “Civici Pompieri Volontari” Civic Fire Brigade Volunteers of Cavallino-Treporti.
Two moments characterized the days.
The first indoor, on Friday afternoon, with a conference hosted in the former community centre of Ca' Savio entitled: "Vegetation Fire Risk in the coastal area of Northern Adriatic " with the participation of the University of Padua, Veneto Region Forest Fire Service, Metropolitan City of Venice, Venice Province Department of the National Fire and Rescue Service, Municipality of Cavallino-Treporti, “Marina di Venezia” Campsite, “Civici Pompieri Volontari” Municipal Civic Fire Brigade Volunteers and firefighting experts.
The second in the field, on Saturday morning, in the external area of the Amalfi Battery, where the steps of alerting operations for command posts between the local operating forces, the Municipality, the Metropolitan City, the Veneto Region and National Fire and Rescue Service were simulated, followed by a practical "exercise manoeuvre" divided into four scenarios, all temporally connected to each other, namely the vegetation fire, the forest fire, the wildland-urban interface fire and the civil fire.
About seventy people took part in the exercise: “Civici Pompieri Volontari” Civic Fire Brigade Volunteers of Cavallino-Treporti; Civil Protection Volunteers Municipality Group of Jesolo; Civil Protection Volunteers Municipality Group of Eraclea; Civil Protection Volunteers Municipality Group of Venice Pellestrina; Civil Protection Volunteers Group “Antelao” of Belluno; Civil Protection Volunteers Groups of the Sandonatese District; Radioamateur Italian League (ARI) of Venice; “Airone” Civil Protection Association Volunteers of Marcon; Civil Protection Volunteers Municipality Group of Duino Aurisina/Devin Nabrežina; Volunteers of the Green Cross of Cavallino-Treporti; Fire and rescue service Sežana, Venice Province Department of the National Fire and Rescue Service.
"It is important to train the population and citizens but also the “Civici Pompieri Volontari” civic fire brigade volunteers who offer their time to our community, but also to interact with all the authorities in charge of services related to safety and emergency - declares the mayor of Cavallino-Treporti Roberta Nesto. Networking therefore means being ready and prepared to work together in synergy and therefore training, even at these levels, becomes fundamental. The last but not least is informing in order to be timely and effective".
"We are proud to host two days of these activities in Cavallino-Treporti together with the many colleagues, including Slovenians, who came here to provide training and prevention knowledge on forest and wildland-urban interface firefighting issues - adds Cristian Donà, commander of the “Civici Pompieri Volontari” Civic Fire Brigade Volunteers of the coastal area -. These activities help to give a culture of self-protection both to the territory and to the accommodation facilities in order to deal with any emergencies ".
"It is an important day within the Interreg Italy-Slovenia project for which the Metropolitan City and the Municipality of Cavallino-Treporti are coordinating an action on the risk of interface and forest fire, studying and testing the procedures in a situation in which natural areas and pine forests come into contact with campsites - concludes Massimo Gattolin, director of the Metropolitan City of Venice Civil Protection Service - Many are the subjects called to operate: it is important to work in a coordinated manner, knowing equipment, procedures, intervention techniques that each of us normally uses in separate contexts. We then practiced together to be ready to defend the pine forests from a potential fire ».
“The climate change we have been experiencing in recent years requires appropriate preparation to be able to face it” - added Francesco Calzavara, regional councillor of finance of the Veneto Region. Exercises like this show the ability of the Fire Brigade and Civil Protection volunteers to intervene. They have repeatedly proved that they are well trained to deal with events such as the one simulated today in Cavallino-Treporti.
Operation co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund
