“A healthy, robust constitution for Civil Defence”

Managing emergencies is also the job of volunteers. And in Italy, there are a lot of them, they want to do something, and they refuse to be stopped even when someone burns their vehicles in a serious act of vandalism. This is a summary of the few minutes spent with Franco Gabrielli (see photo), the Head of Civil Defence who took over from Guido Bertolaso, who retired a year ago; Gabrielli was in town for the first provincial civil defence festival. However, the main purpose of his visit was to deliver the keys of the three fire-fighting vehicles that Rome has given to Varese, to battle the floods, natural disasters and emergencies that hit the town and its inhabitants.

In the foyer of the Apollonio Theatre, wearing a jacket and tie, Gabrielli was surrounded by the authorities. There was also Giuseppe Zamberletti, the Christian Democrat MP, who, in the 1970s, presented the civil defence which has become the organisation that we all know today (see photo below: with the Prefect of Varese).

“It gives me great pleasure to be here in Varese, to witness this gesture of generosity to those who are used to acting,” Gabrielli said. “Over the last few weeks, we’ve been reorganising the fleet of Civil Defence vehicles, and about thirty of these will be used for emergency situations around the Province.”

Varese is, in fact, the first stop on a tour in which the Department is dealing with an emergency within an emergency, by equipping, with vehicles, the offices around the country that have had to face problems caused not by the fury of events, but by the deeds of man. Gabrielli’s next stop will be in the town of Pistoia.

Gabrielli explained that civil defence involves both experts and volunteers. So, what is the state of health of volunteer involvement in civil defence?

“I’d say very good, it has a healthy and robust constitution,” he explained. “Volunteers are an essential part of civil defence. The groups operating around the country work well, and at the end of the year, we intend to assess the general situation in volunteer work.”

The highest offices in the town, including the Prefect of Varese, Giorgio Zanzi, were also present at the evening organised by Varese Province (which was represented by the councillors Carioni and Bonfanti).