Guardie ai Fuochi

The history of the Fire Guards.
To integrate the work of the Fire Brigade, the Port Commanders, in agreement with the competent provincial commander, will establish, where necessary, auxiliary fire fighting teams, made up of volunteer personnel belonging to seafarers or port workers. The staff members of these teams, called to provide training or rescue services, are paid only for this service. With this article in 1940 the Fire Guards were created, groups of strictly volunteer citizens under the direct control of the Port Authorities and the Fire Brigade who, offering them the flame and the two crossed anchors as a symbol, managed fires in the ports and on board the ships. ships during bombing. After the Second World War and during the reconstruction period, the supplementary fire-fighting service in the ports was used with increasingly greater tasks, so much so that real private consortia were created for the management of this service.