Italy wildfires: Locals nervous as blaze erupts east of Rome

Locals were evacuated from small communities around 40 km east of Rome on Friday when a wildfire broke out as the Italian capital faced temperatures of around 37 degrees Celsius.

The heatwave moved north from the south of the country that has been plagued by wildfires in recent weeks, and overnight 25 families were evacuated from their homes as fires spread through the nature reserve of Monte Catillo, near the Rome suburb of Tivoli.

Around 30 residents of the “Don Bosco” Christian home for poor children and orphans were also evacuated to escape the flames. The Monte Catillo nature reserve covers about 1,320 hectares on the mountains of Tivoli, a town that hosts Villa d'Este, a 16th century villa that is one of the symbols of the Italian Renaissance listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Later on Friday, Canadair planes and helicopters were aiding firefighters to tame the flames that were still burning the reserve, with water from the Aniene river that flows through the village.

Local cattle farmer Walter Persili owns 15 cows that graze freely in the reserve but after the fire he was anxious about their safety.

Nearby, a local church was surrounded by burnt vegetation from the blaze, with smoke still rising from destroyed tree trunks. Stacks of photographs of people and priests were covered in ash in a nearby building that had been destroyed by the flames, as a firefighter used a hose to extinguish what remained.

Swathes of southern Italy have been plagued by wildfires in recent weeks, with flames ravaging woodland in Calabria, in the toe of the Italian boot, and on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday promised financial help for communities hit by the fires, and a plan of action to replant forest areas and make the Italian countryside more resilient to natural disasters.

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