Outdoor fire

Hundreds had to be evacuated by sea around Peschici at the weekend.The mayor of Peschici, a seaside town in Puglia's Gargano sub-region, said Monday that a huge wildfire that made it necessary for the Coast Guard to evacuate hundreds of people from beaches via sea at the weekend was "completely under control". "Canadair (fire-fighting aircraft) operations resumed early in the morning, with water drops to extinguish small hotspots in forest areas," said Mayor Luigi D'Arenzo. "Once everything is extinguished, ground-based cleanup operations will begin."When the emergency is over, we will work out the scale of the enormous loss of our forest resources".Although the devastation of the wildfires to have hit Italy so far this summer has not reached the levels of those in Spain and France, it would be wrong to think the nation has got off lightly.Sicily, Calabria, Molise, Sardinia, Puglia, Umbria and Tuscany have all been badly affected by the blazes. A 59-year-old firefighter, Alessandro Marchì, died last week after having a bad turn while battling a huge blaze in the area of San Cataldo, near to the Sicilian city of Caltanissetta.