ROME, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Italian Fire Corp had been awarded an international prize for the aid efforts provided to the population in quake-hit central Italy in 2016, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Conrad Dietrich Magirus Award was conferred to Italy's firefighters among over 100 fire departments competing from Europe, South America, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, the Rome-based Il Messaggero newspaper said. This was the fifth edition of the competition.
"The Italian winners provided a prime example of exceptional teamwork," the prize jury said in a statement. "Teams from over 12 regions, as well as the main cities of Rome, Arezzo, Bologna, Venice, and Pescara came to provide relief to the disaster area."
The prize was conferred in Germany last Friday, referring to the rescue missions carried out in central Abruzzo, Marche, and Lazio regions after a devastating 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 24.
The quake hit particularly hard the villages of Amatrice and Accumoli in the province of Rieti, and Arquata del Tronto and Peschiera del Tronto in the Marche region. Overall, it killed some 300 people.
The same areas were struck by further strong quakes in the following months, which added more destruction and widened the numbers of people affected.
Considering the first major seismic event, the firefighters carried out 26,251 relief operations between Aug. 24 and Sept. 22, 2016, the award organizers said. "People had to be rescued from under the rubble, and approximately 40,000 were brought to safety," they stressed.
As such, the Italian Corp was honored as "International Firefighting Team of the Year 2016" before an audience of some 700 colleagues at the Congress Centrum of Ulm in Germany.
Among the three top teams competing for the first prize were also the fire department of Sao Paolo in Brazil, and the Volunteer Fire Department of the small town of Altenmarkt in Austria.
The Conrad Dietrich Magirus Award was created in Germany in 2012, and has been running at international level since 2013. Its aim is "to increase public awareness of the immense and selfless dedication of the firefighters," according to the prize presentation.
The Italian fire teams have been recently engaged in another extremely difficult rescue operation near the Gran Sasso peak in Abruzzo region. An avalanche crushed a luxury hotel lying on the southern slopes of the mountains on Jan. 18, while 40 people were inside. Eleven survived, nine of which were pulled out alive from under four meters of snow, mud, and rubble of the hotel. Four children were involved, and all of them were rescued. Overall, 29 people were killed.
The rescue operation lasted one week, and involved an average of 200 officers from Italy's various emergency departments including firefighters.
