Italian
Legislative Decree No. No. 227, approved by the Italian Parliament on May 13
1976, laid the foundations for State management of the emergency through the
action of the Special Government Commissioner Giuseppe Zamberletti, who arrived
in Udine on the morning of May 7. On the same day, the first rescue columns of
the fire brigade set off from Turin, still engaged in dealing with the fire in
the production facilities of FIAT Mirafiori, one of the many acts of terrorism
of those years. The column moved towards the Prefecture of Udine, where
companies and individual craftsmen, bricklayers and carpenters from across the
entire Region, also arrived and were immediately involved in the work of
shoring the damaged buildings. They coordinated with the Operational Centres,
the coordinating bodies that intervened under the guidance of the mayors and
the supervision of Commissioner Zamberletti. In the Municipalities,
intervention teams were formed, coordinated by the mayors for the clearing of
roads and the securing of buildings. In the first weeks, 1,000 fire brigade
personnel operated, together with army personnel, retired Alpini, during the
summer, more than 15,000 former “black feathers” took turns carrying out their
holidays there, and thousands of volunteers, including 7,000 scouts, who
arrived from all over Italy. Even in the presence of significant damage to the
building stock, amplified by the particular ground conditions and by the
location of the affected towns, often old and situated on hilltops, the Operational
Centres managed to guarantee the support necessary for securing the sites.
Officers of the National Fire Brigade verified the stability of damaged
building structures and infrastructure, ensuring the necessary demolitions and
the first shoring works, employing hundreds of vehicles.
The manuals and
training handouts for the training of the fire brigade treated the installation
of shoring props as the main type of provisional intervention in seismic
emergencies. The fire brigade had already tested this type of operation in the
management of the earthquake emergencies of Messina in 1908, Avezzano in 1915,
Aquilonia and Lacedonia in 1930, and the Belice earthquake in 1968. Through
shoring operations, temporary support structures were created using wooden
beams or structural materials, capable of stabilising walls or other
load-bearing and unstable building elements. These initial interventions were
necessary to prevent further damage and enable rescuers to reach people trapped
under the rubble and recover their belongings. Thanks to the collaboration of
local construction companies, who made the experience and professional
expertise of their technicians and workforce available, the work was often
carried out just a few hours after the shocks.
This action
made it possible to save lives, prevent further collapses and preserve Friuli's
cultural and historical heritage. This proved to be fundamental in mitigating
the devastating effects of the strong aftershocks in September, which, of
course, could not have been foreseen. The first shoring operations became a
symbol of the immediate, safe and professional response of Friuli, as well as
the widespread solidarity mobilised after the earthquake.
Although many
types of intervention were already known at the time, such as wooden retaining
or counter-bracing shoring, supporting floors and balconies, bracing openings,
wooden centring for arches and vaults, and banding and tie-rod systems, many of
these were reserved for the subsequent phase of structural consolidation. Some
of the teams present in the devastated municipalities, which were made up of
skilled carpenters, later expanded the catalogue of provisional interventions
by resorting to a new solution involving the use of metal tie rods and wooden
beams as retaining elements (as indicated in the provided schematic diagram).
During the
first phase of the Commissioner's activities (from May 7 to July 25 1976), an
initial cataloguing and preliminary assessment of the damage suffered by
buildings and their structural elements was also carried out. The damage to the
buildings was recorded and monitored using special survey forms, with the aim
of creating a uniform and traceable database that would be useful both for
distinguishing and classifying the different structural characteristics of the
buildings and identifying possible solutions for making them safe. It was a
massive operation, which was widely discussed within the National Fire Brigade
for years. Drawing on the experience gained in Friuli, the National Civil
Protection Department, established in 1982, developed a checklist and manual in
1997, which were later computerised, to intervene in the earthquake-stricken
areas of Umbria and Marche and to manage all emergencies until the 2009
earthquake in L'Aquila.
In L'Aquila,
the current Provisional Works Coordination Unit of the National Fire Brigade
(Nucleo Coordinamento Opere Provvisionali - NCP) was established and the
Ministry of the Interior prepared the STOP
Handbook - Technical data sheets for provisional works for post-earthquake
safety measures by the Fire Brigade (2010), a new summary of all the
experience gained to date, contained in a manual of temporary works for urgent
technical intervention in seismic emergencies. This field-tested model still
ensures uniformity in the temporary interventions carried out by the Fire
Brigade and allows progress to be monitored. The forms included in the Handbook
make it possible to carry out temporary works in emergencies, plan
interventions and calculate the amount of material needed to implement the
works on site.
The Unit
benefited from the scientific expertise of Professor Stefano Grimaz of the
University of Udine. Drawing on his experience in Friuli, Professor Grimaz
coordinated a specific working group that produced an updated version of the
“AeDES Form for damage survey, emergency measures and usability of ordinary
buildings in the post-seismic emergency” and the related completion manual in
July 2014.
Drawing on the
experience thus acquired, the Laboratory of Intersectoral Safety and Protection
(SPRINT) was established at the university in Friuli. On May 7 2016, forty
years after the earthquake, the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia,
together with Civil Protection, the National Fire Brigade, the University of
Udine, the Association of the Earthquake-Affected Municipalities and of the
Mayors of the Friuli Reconstruction, and the Municipality of Venzone, signed an
agreement for the activation of the International Training School in Seismic
Emergency Response Management, known as the “SERM Academy”. The school has a
training field in the hamlet of Portis Vecchio of Venzone, one of the symbolic
locations of the 1976 earthquake. In 2018, again at the University of Udine, a
UNESCO Chair in Intersectoral Safety for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience
was established.