Sicily firefighters suspected of setting blazes to get work
World

Sicily firefighters suspected of setting blazes to get work

PUBLISHED : 7 Aug 2017 at 17:14

WRITER: Associated Press

An Italian firefighters sprays water to extinguish a fire which broke out on the Posillipo hill in Naples, Italy, July 17, 2017. Wildfires have been ravaging swaths of Italy, mostly in the south, where the Coldiretti agricultural lobby says July rain levels were down 83 percent while temperatures were around 3 degrees Celsius higher. About 2,500 hectares of pasture have been destroyed in Sicily alone. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)
An Italian firefighters sprays water to extinguish a fire which broke out on the Posillipo hill in Naples, Italy, July 17, 2017. Wildfires have been ravaging swaths of Italy, mostly in the south, where the Coldiretti agricultural lobby says July rain levels were down 83 percent while temperatures were around 3 degrees Celsius higher. About 2,500 hectares of pasture have been destroyed in Sicily alone. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

ROME -- Police in Sicily say 15 firefighters are suspected of setting blazes that they were then called to extinguish.

The Mediterranean island in summer is often by plagued by arson fires.

Police in Ragusa, Sicily, said Monday the head of a firefighting squad was put under house arrest and the others under investigation. Auxiliary firefighters like them receive 10 euros (393 baht) per hour from the Italian government to fight fires.

Police said fire department officials tipped authorities off that one team of auxiliaries was called far more often than others to work in summer 2013 and 2014. The ANSA news agency said some are also suspected of calling in false alarms.

This summer, several arson fires have raged in Sicily and much of central and southern Italy, amid a drought and heat wave.

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