These are literally days of fire for Sicily. The flames are also threatening Taormina and the surrounding hilly areas. In the last few hours the fire front has further extended, also reaching the territory of the nearby village of Castelmola and making the situation in terms of traffic and safety of residents particularly complex. The fire apparently started from the Zappulla district of Taormina, in an area not far from a retirement home, and then quickly spread to the surrounding areas, touching the houses. The flames reached the first tunnel along the road leading to Castelmola, causing the blocking of some access roads to the hill town.
“Taormina burns” Mayor Cateno De Luca wrote on Facebook, describing a particularly critical scenario. “In the Zappulla district the situation is truly tragic. The fire brigade helicopter has arrived. We are waiting for the Canadair. It appears to all intents and purposes to be an arson fire.”
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The firefighters are therefore on site, including with aerial vehicles, while the intervention of Canadair is awaited to try to contain the advance of the flames. The mayor of Castelmola, Orlando Russo, also intervened to deal with the emergency, announcing that he had given instructions to send the municipal tanker to the Tirone district. And in the rest of Sicily the situation is not any rosier:
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The fire threatens homes
The mayor of Taormina reported the presence of a second outbreak, distinct from the one that developed in the Zappulla district. Another fire would in fact have started in the Tirone-Ziretto area, further increasing concern for the homes in the area. Right here Cateno De Luca accompanied the municipal police officers during an intervention to rescue a woman residing in a house seriously threatened by flames.
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The situation therefore remains particularly delicate, with several active fire fronts, roads affected by the emergency and teams engaged in firefighting operations and securing the most exposed people and homes.
In the meantime, news has arrived of the death of the 26-year-old young man, who was burned last week in Ciminna (Palermo) while trying to defend his home from the fire that threatened it.
