Overview
- Multiple large fires continue to burn across Sicily, Calabria and Sardinia, with firefighting aircraft and ground teams working to protect towns and infrastructure as scores of fronts remain active.
- More than 100 residents were evacuated from Santo Stefano Quisquina after flames threatened a clinic, an oxygen depot, a fuel station and a fireworks plant, and roads including a stretch of the SS118 were temporarily closed.
- Regional authorities and the Protezione Civile reported growing signs of deliberate arson, citing crude delayed igniters and cruel methods that reportedly used animals to spread fires, and prosecutors and animal-rights groups have been alerted.
- Fire services logged hundreds of interventions in the affected regions, operations strained by steep terrain and strong winds that forced a temporary closure of the A2 motorway near the Pollino national park.
- The blazes have immediate human and economic costs: at least one firefighter has died, thousands of hectares of pasture and crops were burned in Sardinia with initial damage estimates near €10 million, and political leaders face calls to boost prevention funding and accountability.