More than 1,000 evacuated from Tuscany camping grounds
More than 1,000 evacuated from Tuscany camping grounds
19 August 2012
published by www.telegraph.co.uk
USA–– More than a thousand holidaymakers were evacuated from three camping grounds in Tuscany as fire fighters tackled fierce forest fires threatening coastal areas of the Italian region.
Tourists were evacuated from ‘Il Sole’ camping ground late on Saturday and two other sites in Marina di Grosseto, a seaside resort in the Maremma area on the picturesque Tyrrhenian coast, as the blaze spread.
They spent the night in a local shopping centre and other emergency accommodation set up on the beach and one of the camping grounds was still closed on Sunday.
As summer temperatures rose as high as 38 degrees in parts of Italy, teams of firefighters and volunteers were still battling to control the blaze that had destroyed 120 hectares of pine forest near the camping areas.
A spokeswoman for Il Sole said tourists had been evacuated in plenty of time and food, water and mattresses had been donated for them by local residents and restaurants.
Civil Protection authorities were called to 31 fires across Italy as pyromaniacs were blamed for the fires that swept through the Maremma including one in which 19 thoroughbred horses were burnt to death at a local stables.
In Rome police were fighting a different battle as a record number of tourists plunged into the Trevi Fountain and other historic fountains around the city to keep cool.
Police were on alert after 62 people mostly foreigners were fined for immersing themselves for dipping their toes in the city’s Baroque fountains.
