Vigili del Fuoco
The Vigili del Fuoco is Italy's institutional agency for fire and rescue service. It is part of the Ministry of Interior's Dipartimento dei Vigili del Fuoco, del Soccorso Pubblico e della Difesa Civile. The Corps' task is to provide safety for people, animals, and property, and to give technical assistance to industries, as well as providing fire prevention advice. It also ensures public safety in terrorist emergencies such as chemical, bacteriological, radiological, and nuclear attacks.
Extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, are also increasing in Italy due to global warming. The frequency of wildfires is also increasing. Tectonically, Italy is frequently affected by earthquakes. The Corpo nazionale dei vigili del fuoco is a central force in the disaster management and civil protection of the country.
The word Vigili comes from the Latin word Vigiles, which means "who is part of certain guards". The complete official name is Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili del Fuoco.
History
The first public firefighting organization in the western world was probably the "Vigiles", a military structured body with fire control and rescue duties that protected the city of Rome in the early centuries A.C. Two stations can be still visited in Rome. Their name has been adopted some 19 century later for the new Italian national firefighters organisation.During the Calabrian-Sicilian earthquake in 1908, fire brigades from different Italian towns had faced many problems caused by lack of coordination in equipment and operative instructions.
The Fascist government, via the Ministry of the Interior, commissioned the design and creation of a unified fire protection body to Albert Giombini. The Vigili del Fuoco, established in 1941, merged all the fire protection bodies previously existing in various towns and countries. The body played an important role in relieving the civilian population affected by bombing.
In 1942 the "Santa Barbara Battalion" was created after the Italians' retreat from Russia, and the defeat in the Battle of El Alamein. In this phase of the war, the German-Italian Allies planned to invade the island of Malta, then a British possession, using the ladders of the fire brigade, to be mounted on mine-layers. The soldiers could walk the ladders up to the island's territory. Giombini secretly asked all the 94 corps for a list of volunteers; it was necessary a strict selection for the manpower recruiting since the answers were numerous.
The operation, called "C3" by Italians and "Herkules" by Germans, however, was abruptly cancelled in October 1942, and the Battalion was disbanded. In early November, under increasing Anglo-American bombing raids on Italian towns, the men were divided into five groups, each with 100 men, and sent in the cities hardest hit by enemy bombs to aid the local Fire Commands. The ladders were returned to the Commands and the men who had been part of the Battalion were authorized to wear on the uniform the special badge of the "Santa Barbara".
In 1989 the National Fire Corps was awarded the appointment of "goodwill ambassador" by the Italian Committee for 'UNICEF'. "Yes for Children", a manifesto for children's rights, is one of the campaigns it took part in.
In 2016 the Corp was awarded by the "Conrad Dietrich Magirus Award", the most important international firefighters contest in the world. The Italy's fire department were honoured as "International Firefighting Team of the Year" with this motivation: "Earthquake helpers are distinguished for extraordinary performance and teamwork".
Organisation
Firefighters in Italy are officers of the state. The National Fire and Rescue Service is part of the Department that depends on the Ministry of the Interior. The Department of firefighters, public rescue and civil defense is composed by eight central directorates, eighteen regional offices and 103 provincial commands. There are around eight hundred stations throughout the country.The fire department operates its own nationwide radio network that is fail-safe. From 2021, the fire department's radio network was converted to TETRA digital trunked radio. Digital UHF-Base stations and servers were set up nationwide and in the autonomous regions. A fail-safe nationwide analog radio network was already in operation a few decades ago.
Operational staff
Emergency teams work throughout the country. Detachments of Vigili del Fuoco in each province are controlled by a coordinating command authority. In response to emergency calls, local operations rooms make decisions about the level of response and type of equipment needed and liaise with local police and other emergency services.Operating personnel may be permanent or volunteer. The latter is distinguished by the presence of a white frieze on the badge of status.
Each team consists of 5 or 6 people and is coordinated by a team leader or by the fireman with the longest field experience. He is distinguished from other firefighters by the red frieze and the red helmet. The rest of the team consists of Vigili Permanenti or of volunteers with several years of "seniority".
Since 5 December 2005 the firefighters are no longer conscripts; citizens can subscribe to the civil service for a year. They are appointed to logistical and clerical services.
The head of the Department of Firefighters, Public Rescue and Public Protection is a prefect, appointed by the Minister of the Interior, who does not belong to the corps; the head of the CNVVF is a general manager from the corps and wears a uniform.
Staff become operational after six months of physical and professional training in Rome. A special course entitles selected firefighters to run emergency vehicles.
Operative staff have functions of criminal police, public safety, and fire prevention. The brigade's main task is to identify the causes of fires in collaboration with other police forces.
"Discontinuous" volunteer fighters are former conscripts who have subscribed to the body, or citizens who have taken a specific course at the local Commands. Discontinuous volunteer brigades serve either at the Provincial Commands and local detachments, or at specific volunteer detachments.
Support staff
The Servizio Amministrativo Tecnico Informatico, or SATI, supports the operational staff in all administrative and accounting tasks. It employs professionals with skills in computer science, electrical engineering, and telecommunications.SATI's personnel can be used in support of operational structures in places affected by major disasters or emergencies, where they assist operative staff. Each Command has IT specialists as administrators of the internal networks of the various Provincial, Regional and/or central offices, or as system analysts and programmers to develop the software used by the corps.
Volunteers
In Italy the 60% of the firefighters are volunteers. The volunteers firefighters are organised in local stations under the provincial command.The provincial command is responsible for the recruitment and the training of the volunteers.
To become a volunteer you must to be 18, italian citizen and have a good background, and present the require tò the provincial command.
The volunteers stations are led by a capo distaccamento volontario nominated by the ministry of interior after a public exam, and structured in sections and teams. Turnations are decided by the capo distaccamento.
The volunteers have a pay correspondent tò 8 euros for hour of mission. A different matter is for the firefighting service in the Trentino-Alto Adige Region and Aosta Valley, where the system is independent from the nation one and is composed uniquely of volunteers. Only in the autonomous province of Trento there are more than 5000 active volunteers distributed among more than 200 departments