The issue of reclamation of unexploded war residues, in fact, still today in Italy is of considerable importance, considering the high number of finds that every year commit the components of the national civil protection system.
The war bomb of 4000 pounds in the municipality of Vicenza (see article) - which, due to its characteristics and explosive potential, entailed the declaration of a state of emergency by the Council of Ministers and requested, last 25 April, the evacuation of approximately 30.000 people to allow the complex civil protection system to work for the disarming - highlighted the fundamental role of emergency planning and coordination between the various components and operating structures of the system for the success of these activities.
The meeting, chaired by the head of the civil protection department, Franco Gabrielli, was attended, among others, by Achille Variati, mayor of Vicenza and commissioner delegate for emergency management, Mauro Altieri, lieutenant colonel and head of operations for the command interregional-northern defense forces of the Italian army, Salvatore Toscano, captain of the second regiment genius sappers of Trento who intervened in the disarming of the war device "Old Lady", Roberto Tonnellato, regional director of the civil protection of Veneto.
"We have promoted this day - said Prefect Gabrielli in introducing the works - because in the emergency management in Vicenza we recorded many positive aspects to be treasured: from the planning of the evacuation of thousands of people promptly informed by the municipality in the previous weeks (delicate aspect if we think of planning for the volcanic risk in the Vesuvian and Phlegraean areas) to the abilities of the artifices of our army: technical skills but also to create positive synergies with all the other components and operating structures of the civil protection system ".
The initiative has allowed us to retrace, step by step, the choices, even delicate ones, which have been taken from the municipality to the armed forces with the aim of defusing a war device that was used during the Second World War to destroy entire neighborhoods of the big cities, decreasing as much as possible, as the Tuscan captain recalled, the costs and inconveniences to the community.
In the intervention area, located near the Dal Molin airport, the army bomb squads, to date, have found and defused 174 well.
«We have put the maximum possible care on all the details - underlined the mayor Variati - thanks to the splendid collaboration relationship that since the discovery of the bomb we have established with the army soldiers who have dealt with the planning and defusing. The timely and constant information to the citizens was fundamental and, on the day of the operations, whose behavior was decisive ».
It was another emergency in which the Italian army demonstrated its ability to "dual use": "we have positively translated the logistic and operational experiences, matured in the various mission scenarios, making them available to the community within the framework of the civil protection system ", Lieutenant Colonel Altieri reiterated.
Source: Army Majority Staff
