Volcanic risk emergencies

Stromboli, 2019 - Monitoraggio della Sciara del Fuoco

In Italy, the volcanoes that have erupted in recent years are Etna and Stromboli. The former is located on the east coast of Sicily, while the latter is part of the Aeolian Islands archipelago.

In the "Emergencies in Italy" section, we provide a description of the eruptions that have occurred over the past decade. Due to their intensity and extent, type C events are met with extraordinary means and powers. The Prime Minister signed decrees declaring States of emergency for the eruptions of the Stromboli and Etna volcanoes, which were subsequently extended multiple times.

The entire National Civil Protection Service took part in emergency management. Specifically, the Civil Protection Department deployed its personnel and resources in the affected areas to implement emergency plans, rescue the affected population, and reduce the damaging effects by organizing and coordinating active measures such as lava flow deviations, as well as passive measures like planned evacuations, collecting and disposing of ash, and distributing self-protective devices for falling ashes.

In the "International interventions" section, we describe the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano and the ash cloud it produced, impacting the skies of Europe from March to May 2010, including Italy.