More people were involved in malicious fires than in negligence, by a ratio of four to one over the last 30 years. And the infamous cigarette butts thrown out of car windows have started fires, but "only" seven times in the last five years. If Sardinia has burned, it happened, in the vast majority of cases, because someone wanted it to happen. Although the recent trend is toward blame: in the last five years, malicious intent has been discovered in 619 cases, and tragic fatality has been confirmed in 299.
The report
The Regional Council is hearing the document from the Forestry and Environmental Protection Corps, "Summary Report on the Recent Causes and Perpetrators of Fires in Sardinia's Forests and Countryside," updated through 2025, during the island's rainiest period. The data "represent the results of investigative activity relating to a subset of 14,231 fires investigated since 1994." The document, signed by Commander Gianluca Cocco, therefore, does not cover all fires recorded in Sardinia, but "only" those—and there are quite a few—that the rangers have worked on, taking into account parameters such as severity.
Data framing
A broad picture, given the numbers. However, it is paying the price of the Cartabia reform and the staffing shortages of the body that protects Sardinia's environment: "One factor that in recent years has influenced the number of crime reports (CNR) submitted by the Forestry Corps," the report states, "is determined by recent circulars from prosecutors' offices, now aligned with the contents of the Cartabia reform, which tend to limit the reports primarily to those in which the investigative activity conducted, based on the content, clues, and evidence gathered, can lead to a reasonable expectation of conviction of the person under investigation or suspected. " Furthermore, "Data sampling is also influenced by factors within the Corps' organization, such as the progressive reduction in personnel, which limits the number of investigators available for investigative activities, in combination with equally essential firefighting and operational coordination operations."
The numbers of the last 5 years
Having established the premises, there are numbers and tables. The dossier reports a sample of 2,319 negligent causes settled on a thirty-year basis, which decrease to 299 on a five-year basis. This is followed by " malicious causes, recorded on a thirty-year and five-year basis, amounting to 9,738 and 619, respectively." Among the negligent causes "settled" in the last five years, the most frequent are the use of mechanical, flame, or electrical devices (35%), the illegal burning of stubble (30%), the failure to maintain or clean up the residue of fires lit in the countryside by hikers, campers, breeders, and farmers (1%), and the alleged lack of maintenance of power lines or other electrical power lines (10%).
Among the intentionally set fires, conflicts or vendettas between private individuals (pastures) and between farmers and the public administration account for 30%, while arsonists account for 20% . Thirteen percent of fires were lit "to create alarm or to distract the Corps from other institutional commitments." Other intentional causes included clearing, renovating, and improving pastures (13%), clearing land for agricultural work (7%), and retaliation for the Corps' anti-poaching activities (4%).
In detail
Imprudent use of electrical and mechanical equipment in the countryside, which can produce sparks, appears to be a constant: it has been found to have caused fires 604 times in the last 30 years. Poor maintenance of power lines has been a factor in 224 cases. And in 382 cases, the fire escaped from someone who was burning stubble during prohibited periods.
Investigations for arson "with undetermined causes" have been conducted in 7,718 cases over 30 years. Arson for the sake of fire, i.e., by arsonists, has been confirmed 192 times since 1994. During the same period, someone has started a fire while drunk: there have been 24 investigations in 30 years, and one in the last five. Political terrorism has been the underlying cause eight times: none in the last five years.
Occupation equals fires
Starting from the numbers, the report also provides guidance on possible courses of action to stem the scourge of fires. One seems significant: "Continue to break the equation 'employment = fires' by dedicating to the active fight, in addition to permanent Cfva and Forestas Agency staff, exclusively volunteers supported by reimbursements independent of fire extinguishing costs, also excluding paid agreements with local authorities and avoiding the involvement of temporary and seasonal workers in the municipal teams involved."
in the fire-fighting system." This prevents someone from starting a fire to work: "The recent hiring of workers by Agenzia Forestas has certainly discouraged expectations among the unemployed regarding temporary hiring during the fire-fighting period, even if these same hirings, finalized only at the end of August, may have created some problems in relation to certain incidents."