Casal di Principe, new fire and the mayor protests

Casal of the Beginning. Subsequently a new fire of waste involving houses causing their evacuation and one person being poisoned, the mayor of Casal di Principe Renato Natale says “enough”, and calls a press conference to denounce the inertia of supra-municipal institutions, in the face of the impossibility of the Municipalities to intervene due to the lack of human and economic resources.

Too many waste fires in Casal di Principe and in the municipalities of Caserta and Naples falling within the Land of Fires. "This situation is no longer acceptable. The mayors - says Natale - have become the target of the citizens' justified complaints and protests; they are bombarded with notes from the Land of Fires Police Station, Arpac, the Carabinieri, environmental associations: all asking the Municipalities to clean up, to control, to punish, to make safe, with threats, not so veiled, of complaints for omissions or for environmental disaster.

But the Municipalities are unable to intervene. We are fighting – adds Natale – a war without weapons: little personnel and few economic resources prevent us from effectively addressing the problem, even if despite the lack of means some results have been obtained, thanks to the commitment and sacrifice of our employees and volunteers”.

Today, yet another complaint was filed with the Prosecutor's Office of North Naples, signed by over thirty mayors of the municipalities involved, including Casal di Principe, to request investigations into the phenomenon, which has intensified in recent weeks, as always happens in the summer, of waste fires; the mayors hypothesize a criminal strategy of illegal disposal, but in the meantime the fires create inconvenience and problems for the population.

For Christmas, the new complaint "is yet another attempt to stir up stagnant waters on this issue", while almost every day there is a new fire. In Casal di Principe today a fire broke out involving waste and brushwood near some homes, which were evacuated for safety reasons, and only the intervention of the firefighters and volunteers from the municipal civil protection unit allowed the flames to be put out, but the black smoke produced by the burning waste intoxicated one person and made the air unbreathable.

"The phenomenon has intensified significantly in recent weeks - continues Mayor Natale - involving a bit of the entire outskirts of the city, with risks and dangers for public health. The municipal administration has done everything in its power to prevent and intervene quickly. But alone - he reiterates - we cannot do much. Despite the appeals of recent years, by the Municipalities of the so-called Land of Fires, even today in 2022 we must note a substantial abandonment by the other institutions" concludes Natale.