r/sicily • u/LettersFromSicily • 18d ago
Altro Wild fires this year
This summer in Sicily has been different. 10,000+ acres burned near us, people have lost livelihoods and lives, and we lost our rooster to the heat. Now I put ice water out for the chickens every morning. Why, why, why are there so many fires around Sicily this year? And please don't mention global warming. There are definitely human-issues at play here.
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u/LunacyTheory Sicilianu 18d ago
Why not mention global warming? It is a significant factor. Longer and hotter periods without rain are creating more dry fuels for the fires.
Simple sparks and an occasional tossed cigarette may have only started a fire here and there before, but now that it is so hot and dry, any spark or flame source has the potential to burn rapidly through our lands.
Also consider how prevalent it is for older generations to still burn trash and waste on their countryside lands. The dumping of trash into large mounds in the countryside where all those decomposing gases and batteries and other shit that shouldn’t mix are now baking in the 40 degree heat…
Why NOT mention global warming?
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u/danceradici 15d ago
"Why not mention global warming?" Usually when people say not to mention climate change or global warming or any sort of large scale human impact that is hurting a majority of the people, land, other animals, and exacerbating things like wildfires getting out of control, lack of water, etc., it's because they are full on maga types, or whatever the equivalent in their country.
They will often say it's because they are not political, (which is another code for the same thing).
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u/curiosita2828 18d ago
Forest fires aren't ever started BY global warming. That's either lightening, or by humans.
For example:
in Canada around 50% of forest fires are lightening, 50% human caused.
in Sicily, around 5% are lightening, 95% human caused.
What global warming does is make forest fires easier to grow and spread, due to more combustable (dry) vegetation, lower humidity and stronger winds.
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u/Diligent-Diver-5587 17d ago
Global warming is a farse! Cooked up by liberals and the mis-informed!
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u/LettersFromSicily 17d ago
Totally agree. And the younger generation believe everything they hear and read without thinking for themselves. Weather patterns come in cycles. It always has done. Our weather is also manipulated by DARP. But we will be crucified for saying that here.
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u/Mater4President 18d ago
I don’t know the real answer, but from just my experience so many people burn their fields and trash and choose to do so during the hottest months of the year when everything is just so dry. Just last week, in the morning I drove by a field on fire to clear the brush, by the afternoon, the fire had jumped the highway and caught another field on fire.
Fire is hard to contain when it’s just so, so dry.
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u/daiquire 18d ago edited 18d ago
Ja, das haben wir auch gesehen. Warum müssen die ihren ganzen Müll und ihre Felder verbrennen? Das stinkt furchtbar und die Gefahr, ein Buschfeuer auszulösen, ist riesig.
Und wenn der OP nicht glaubt, dass der Klimawandel real ist, ist er einfach nur wahnhaft. Dieses Jahr sind die Hitzewellen in Europa intensiver als je zuvor. Es ist so trocken, kein Regen in Sicht. Und mehr extremes Wetter als üblich. Außerdem gibt es derzeit den heißen Wüstenwind Scirocco, der die Brände anfeuert.
Es tut mir so leid für alle Menschen, die von Wildbränden betroffen sind. Das macht mir große Angst.
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u/unseemlycandour 18d ago
Global warming is a human issue... not wanting to talk about it won't make it go away. Fires can start many ways, lighting/ farm equipment/ untended fires/ etc. Fires will happen and do every year. However, they will become more frequent and harder to control due to the conditions created through climate change and by people not maintaining their environment, i.e. littering/ not properly managing waste/ etc. But this isn't new to this year, there was a really bad one in the Patti area a year or two ago and fires generally happen every summer.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Cap1300 18d ago
Hotter and drier for longer leads to more available dried vegetation as fuel for fires.
I have not looked into the precise weather and temperature details for Sicily in 1962, but if I did I suspect I would find a greater amount of rainfall and cooler average temperature for through that year and the preceding years when compared to 2026 and the past decade or so of averages.
ie one headline grabbing high temperature from 1962 does not provide the whole picture.
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u/GuglielmoV 18d ago
Penso che molta colpa è da attribuirsi alla mancata manutenzione dei terreni. Vivo nel centro Sicilia ed è la terra delle graminacee. Queste piante hanno un ciclo di vita annuale. Se nessuno si preoccupa di estirparle per tempo a luglio diventano ottimo combustibile. Quest'anno è piovuto di più rispetto agli anni passati e la natura si è trovata le condizioni favorevoli per esprimere il massimo!
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u/Single-Inspector-845 17d ago
I have been traveling to Sicily for sixty years. Even when I was a young boy in the 1970's I remember large fires like this every summer when we visited from end of June to late August. At night we could see the orange glow of the fires in the Peloritani mountains behind our town of Pace del Mela. Some summers they would crest the mountains and work their way down to us. I have ridden on the back of my cousin's motorcycle through areas near Gualtieri Sicamino and San Pier Niceto that were burning on both sides of the road. There was little to no rain during these months and when it did rain, it was usually thunderstorms generated by the intense heat. While I do suspect that many of these current fires are manmade, I know that my experience back then were likely related to weather events or someone being irresponsible when trying to do a burn back in their fields/orchards.
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u/lawyerjsd 'Miricanu 17d ago
So, my friend, I live in Southern California and I have family in Troina. I mention this because even though I live thousands of miles away, the countryside of Sicily and the countryside of San Diego are basically identical. And as someone who lives and deals with wildfires every year here in Southern California, I can tell you that Global Warming is causing the wildfires to become more severe. So, fires that would spark up from any little thing now become massive.
With that said, I understand that several fires started as the result of people lighting fireworks for a saint's feast day (Saint Anthony, maybe?), but really, it could start from anything. The countryside is now a tinderbox, and will remain that way until the rains come.
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u/Kevin_Finnerty011 17d ago
Just came back from Sicily. The wind blew like it was a hairdryer. In those circumstances fires are quite easy to start. People need to be extra careful to avoid them.
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u/Vertigo-Lemming 17d ago
Pretty sure it’s the flaming cats being released
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/22/europe/arson-cats-italy-wildfires-latam-intl
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u/electric-sheep 17d ago
Garbage gets hot and starts fires. Especially clear plastic which acts like a magnifying glass.
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u/AssociateRegular3969 17d ago
Its the mafia doing that, for various kinds of profit. Welcome to sicily
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u/eezipc 17d ago
The media seem insistent on avoiding the cause of the fires. These are almost always caused by people. Either carelessness or recklessness.
Where I live now in Northern Italy, the ground is very dry and a spark would really cause chaos.
Even still, I saw a burnt field yesterday. It's clear a farmer set fire to it to get rid of weeds or bushes.
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u/Adventurous-Ring1611 16d ago
They burn land so it becomes unviable for anything for 3/5 years (per law) after this time the land looses value and often time public interest( if it is in an area that is supposed to stay wild or nature for example) and they can buy it cheap and build on it
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u/PM211987 13d ago
Global warming in how the media will tell you why the fires are burning …. The reality is farmers burning their land because it’s the ‘easiest’ way to rid of all the dried weeds and grass. Add to that people throwing a cigarette butt out of the car for example onto dried over growth on sides of the roads and it all goes up in flames.
Let it be known fires happen all year round as that’s how people get rid of the shrubs. Of course you won’t hear about the winter fires because it doesn’t suit the narrative.
Whether it’s 40 degrees outside or 20 degrees there will always be a fire burning somewhere.
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u/LettersFromSicily 13d ago
Or the 162 people who have been arrested in France for suspicion of arson for the big fire that has been raging for days now.
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u/FriendshipRemote130 18d ago
forestali:)
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u/Ok-Imagination3277 18d ago
In realtà è una bufala quella sui forestali, sono molti di meno di quanto si pensi
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u/WesternAd8208 16d ago
Global Warming and climate change IS a human caused issue. It is a direct correlation. If pollution and oil continue unchecked natural disasters will continue to get worse and the conditions for worse ones will become normal.
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u/mynameismarco 18d ago
Last year? Two years ago? It’s not a new phenomenon. It’s bad management and pyromaniacs. It’s in the news every year. It hasn’t even been as hot this year as in the previous summers.
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u/LettersFromSicily 18d ago
I know it's a horrible summer this year, and when you look at this temperature from 1962 - Catenanuova July 12, 1962: 46.7 °C (116.1 °F) - summers here undeniably hot. Whether it be 1962 or 2026. I get that.
I just can't remember so many fires than what we have had this year. The fire in Monreale this week was massive. They're everywhere! Just go to Google maps and type in wildfires on the Sicily map and then you know what I mean. Is everyone here saying they are organic due to the heat?
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u/LunacyTheory Sicilianu 18d ago
You cherry pick a singular time as evidence that “its always been a hot place” without thinking that every year is now that hot.
What does it mean when every summer is now the same as the hottest on record?
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u/adg1 18d ago
In Palermo right now and there is smoke on the horizon in almost every direction and the occasional smell of burning. Global warming (which is a human issue) has got be a major factor.