Rain helps contain record forest fire in Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Rain has brought relief to firefighters battling a record forest fire in Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, ORF reported on Friday. After nearly 1,000 hectares of forest burned, the danger now appears to have passed.

About 800 firefighters with 300 vehicles have been working continuously in the region for the past two weeks. Dense smoke from the fires around the Canal Valley reached neighbouring Carinthia in Austria.

The fires spread mainly around Tolmezzo and Amaro, destroying more than 1,000 hectares of forest. Fire brigade commander Ricky De Agostini called it a new record and said no forest fire of this size had ever occurred there before.

Fire crews battled the flames around the clock, including with water taken from Lake Weißensee in Carinthia. Special firefighting aircraft collected about 250,000 litres of water from the lake over several days, with a later tally putting the amount at 252,000 litres.

Firefighters had long been hoping for rain as the only lasting solution to the blaze. Up to 180 millimetres fell overnight on Thursday, according to the head of the Friulian fire brigade.

Ground crews can cautiously declare the fire under control, but they will wait for the rain to stop before carrying out further checks. Thermal imaging cameras and drones will be used to inspect the area, and officials hope to declare the fire fully extinguished in the coming days.

The order declaring the fire out is also awaited by thousands of people in Friuli, who have spent the past two weeks watching the burning mountains through dense smoke.