ROME, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Some 600 people have been evacuated as a precaution in Italy's Sardinia as huge fires, made worse by strong winds, have been blazing in the northern and southern parts of the island, local media reported Monday.
Among the blazes, a major fire was burning on Sunday afternoon in the municipality of Posada in the northeastern province of Nuoro in Sardinia, causing a "heavy situation" where winds were pushing flames towards nearby coastal villages popular with tourists, according to ANSA news agency.
As of early Monday, Canadair firefighting planes, helicopters and firefighters were still combating the fires, and the regional civil protection department was bringing in reinforcements.
The fires devastated farms and destroyed forage reserves in the Feraxi area and threatened some accommodation facilities, reports said.
In a press release on Sunday, Sardinia's governor Christian Solinas said he already asked the national civil protection services to strengthen the firefighting air fleet, and forwarded an early warning for the activation of the European civil protection mechanism.
Solinas did not rule out the possibility that the blazes were a result of arson.
A separate press release on Sunday said he instructed regional forestry corps to "intensify investigations throughout the territory to identify and bring those responsible to justice." ■
