After the earthquake of the island of Ischia of magnitude 4.0 at 20:57 on 21 August, accompanied by a seismic swarm with a hypocenter one kilometer from Casamicciola and only two kilometers deep, with a toll of 2 dead, 39 injured and 2.600 displaced people, of which 2.000 in Casamicciola and 600 in Lacco Ameno, the timeliness of national institutional intervention remains in the news and must not be forgotten. This emergency was in fact quickly taken over by the Ministry of Defense together with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers while the Defense Staff subsequently arranged with its Interforces Operations Center the organization of relief efforts. What should not be forgotten in memory of this disaster is that the place of emergency is located on an island on whose soil are not located specialized forces for the complete management of relief.
After an inspection by military personnel on the island and after the meeting of the operational committee at the Civil Defense, as of 1 am, helicopters of the Army and the Air Force were sent to transport vehicles and highly qualified personnel from the island to Ischia. 'USAR (Urban Search And Rescue, ed) of the Fire Brigade, while ships, helicopters and military personnel were deployed in operational readiness together with colleagues from the Army Corps.
The Italian Air Force has also been assigned reconnaissance activities with Predator and AMX bomber fighters (photos) to support Civil Defense in order to map the damage area. This integration of technologically advanced military forces has given its concrete response to the needs of the population and civil protection, highlight the dual capacity of employment of the Armed Forces, always present in places affected by catastrophic events.
This chain of great professionalism and humanity is exalted in the most terrible moments where human impotence before the great catastrophes is discovered to be completely fragile, to rediscover the value of the work done by men in uniform who takes on a unique role, a role that becomes the concreteness of the aid and hopes of those affected.
The military and personnel of the State Corps are always ready to work only without saving their strength and going against the clock to save lives in danger.
The effectiveness of this chain of rescues is the one that allowed the rescue of three children stuck in the rubble by the hand of the Fire Department of the USAR that along with military personnel and other State Corps have carved nonstop, demonstrating skills of great humanity and professionalism to which today applauds the whole nation.
Of course everyone has done their part in this affair that despite everything ended positively, but it is clear that beyond the professionalism, commitment, sacrifice, in these catastrophic events the final result is never taken for granted because they often play a game series of contrary or unpredictable events that can overcome every human effort, as shown by the many cases of news.
A woman, Mrs. Lina dies because of the rubble of the façade of the Church of S. Maria dei Suffragi, a church that has recently been restored, obviously by human hand, while Signora Marilena remains buried under her holiday home. Unlike the little Ciro, convinced that God is there, destiny has reserved a hero's final that sees him rewarded by the Minister of Defense Roberta Pinotti, a destiny certainly accompanied by Divine Providence represented and made by the hands of men in uniform who have decided with faith and courage that their arts serve for life, the lives of others.
What is certain is that in the face of great supernatural or danger events, all the colors of Italian uniforms come together hand in hand to become that of a single color, that of the defense of the nation that they love as their own family.
Who are the USAR of the Fire Brigade
The USAR project (Urban Search And Rescue) was created to improve the rescue activities in rubble, deriving from seismic events, explosions, collapses or static and hydrogeological instabilities. The USAR teams of the National Fire Brigade face rescue operations in such scenarios with an adequate level of safety and with highly evolved methodologies concerning above all the assessment of the associated risks, the localization techniques and the extrication activities of the victims. These operations must be particularly incisive, timely and fast. The operators must act in such a way as to extricate the trapped subjects within time margins that facilitate their health treatment and avoid the occurrence of posthumous complications or, even worse, their death.
The fighters use special equipment and equipment for search and rescue, such as geophones, robots, thermal imaging cameras, search-cam, and must also be trained to immediately provide Basic life support with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BLS).
The USAR team is typically made up of the following functions:
- Management
- Structural experts
- Dog units
- Technological equipment workers
- Health workers
- Persons involved in the penetration into rubble and extrication of victims
- Hazmat specialists (handling of dangerous substances)
- TAS support (topography applied to the rescue)
The voices of the VVF representatives:
"We have been working uninterruptedly in a continuous and undeclared state of emergency for months. We need assumptions, resources and resources".
"The new assumptions released by the Madia are nothing compared to the lack of personnel."- The firefighters, adds the union, operate in"a continuous and undeclared state of emergency, they have been operating daily for more than a year between earthquakes, fires, bad weather" and now "the new shock that hit the island ... But we can no longer remain silent: urgent measures are needed in favor of the fire brigade".
Beyond the façade events and the compliments of institutions and citizens, the Vigili present their commitment beyond the protocol, up to the endless overtime, up to the emotion for having saved three children pulled from the rubble, while the fire emergency and the new earthquake a year later from that of Amatrice and Accumoli, now it is urgent to take measures in favor of the Corps, promised several times but never arrived with hires, stabilization means and resources, being "under staff of 3.500, with vehicles and equipment to be restored, underpaid and without accident insurance".
Only at the end of July did the unions report the numbers of this year's emergency: the interventions of the firefighters doubled, from 24 thousand last year to over 45 thousand of this. While, in the context of the fire emergency, the number of air interventions has tripled, reaching almost 2 thousand, as well as the hours of use of the air fleet. The number of helicopter launches e Canadair it is about 21mila, again in the period from June to July, compared to the 7.300 registered in the same period of the 2016.
At the beginning of August, 400 extraordinary recruitments were released by Minister Madia, which are "nothing in the face of a total shortage of staff"And with a contract blocked by the 2009.
(photo: web / Aeronautica Militare / Marina Militare)
