Forest, Brush Fires Erupting Across Central, Southern Italy - 1,500 Fires In 24 Hours - AFP

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Forest and brush fires on Monday engulfed parts of central and southern Italy amid searing temperatures, with firefighters battling some 1,500 blazes in the past 24 hours, officials said.

More than 8,000 firefighters, 1,700 firetrucks and 10 helicopters have been deployed along with 21 planes including 13 "Scoopers" used to drop water on fires.

"Today new fires broke out in (southern) Calabria and in Sicily and Sardinia," public safety director Luigi d'Angelo told AFP.

An emergency services spokesman said three major operations were under way Monday afternoon near the central Italian town of Gubbio, near Catania in Sicily and around railway lines at San Giuliano Milanese, near northern Milan. The fire outside Milan caused a halt in national rail traffic for about an hour and a half in the middle of the day.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/070723154525.d010gizc.html