Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Sicilian wildfires prompt evacuations

Dozens of Italians were forced to leave their homes in Sicily this week as regional wildfires damaged homes and threatened communities.
|
|
 
  
Published: Aug. 22, 2007 at 6:48 PM

PALERMO, Italy, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Dozens of Italians were forced to leave their homes in Sicily this week as regional wildfires damaged homes and threatened communities.

With increasing winds hindering firefighters' attempts to control the blazes Wednesday, officials at a hospital near the coastal town of Cefalu have begun to take steps for their own evacuation from the endangered area, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Portions of southern Italy have also been beset by wildfires during the last month, leading authorities to lay the blame for the rash of fires on arsonists.

Those reports have led the World Wide Fund for Nature to ask that financial rewards be offered for information leading to the capture of the suspected arsonists.

A 17-year-old suspect was arrested Wednesday in the Puglia region of Italy in connection to a recent fire in protected woodland.

ANSA said that to date, the wildfires have leveled numerous such woodland locales and have killed several people.

© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Protesters, police clash at NATO summit Notable deaths of 2012 2012 Billboard Music Awards
The 137th Preakness Stakes Annual Solar eclipse occurs in U.S. Chen Guangcheng arrives in the U.S.
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 29
Members of the Army's Old Guard place flags at Arlington National Ceremtery
View Caption
U.S. flags are seen in the rucksack of a soldier with the Army's 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard, as he places flags at gravesites in Arlington National Cemetery as part of the Flags-In Memorial Day ceremony on May 24, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. American flags were placed at each of the more than 220,000 grave markers in honor of those who served and Memorial Day. UPI/Kevin Dietshc