80 Years of the National Fire Brigade Vigili del Fuoco

Logo of the Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili del Fuoco (National Fire and Rescue Corps). Around the inner edge of the coin, the commemorative inscription "CORPO NAZIONALE DIE VIGILI DEL FUOCO". The Italian Republic monogram "RI" appears to the left; the year 2020 and the Rome Mint mark "R" to the right of the logo. The initials "LDS" of coin designer Luciana de Simoni are visible below.

In the spring of 1939, Italy established the Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili del Fuoco, a state-organised fire brigade that brought together the previously fragmented, locally organised fire protection structures into a single national authority. Its roots reach back further, however: as early as the early 20th century, major cities such as Rome, Milan and Turin had built professional fire brigades, and the experience of two world wars considerably accelerated centralisation. Today the Corpo falls under the Ministry of the Interior and is among the largest fire protection organisations in Europe, with tens of thousands of professional firefighters and specialised units for water rescue, earthquake and chemical incident response.

Over the decades, the Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili del Fuoco has expanded its scope of operations far beyond conventional fire incidents. During the severe earthquakes in Friuli in 1976, Irpinia in 1980, and most recently central Italy in 2016, the Vigili del Fuoco were, alongside the civil protection agency Protezione Civile, the first state body on the ground. Internationally, the corps regularly takes part in EU civil protection missions. Its 80th anniversary in 2020 gave Italy occasion to honour the corps with a 2-euro commemorative coin.