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Venice, one of the most stunning cities on Earth. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
Over 50,000 tourists arrive here each day for the carnival, | 0:00:09 | 0:00:14 | |
culture and canals. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
But what they don't see is how this city works. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:21 | |
This is Venice from the inside. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
Around the clock, | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
emergency teams fight to keep a city built on water safe and working. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
ALARM BELL RINGS | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
With unprecedented access to police, fire and medical teams, | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
we come face to face with the unique daily challenges | 0:00:35 | 0:00:39 | |
and life-and-death drama. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
Up to yesterday evening, she was all right and this morning, she was found not responsive. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:47 | |
This is Venice 24/7, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
Venice has almost 2,000 years of culture and history | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
packed into an island three miles long. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
The high density of ancient buildings | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
erected on mud and still in good working condition | 0:01:11 | 0:01:15 | |
makes this one of the world's most architecturally valuable cities. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:19 | |
It's Venice's uniqueness which draws millions of visitors each year. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:25 | |
But as tourist numbers rise, resident numbers fall. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
Less than 60,000 people now live here year-round. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
In the depths of winter, | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
the city is briefly handed back to the residents. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
Once the tourists go home, | 0:01:41 | 0:01:43 | |
ordinary men and women get down to ensuring the city is set for the year ahead. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:48 | |
In the heart of Venice, just off the Canal Grande, | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
is the historic centre's only fire station. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
Here, over 50 firemen operate a fleet of super-fast fire boats, | 0:02:01 | 0:02:06 | |
ready to be launched for any emergency. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
At the helm is 39-year-old Alessandra Bascia. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:13 | |
This is not my town. This is not my place, my birthplace, I mean. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:20 | |
I'm coming from the south of Italy and in Italy, | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
there is quite a difference between South and North. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:27 | |
I'm a woman and here, firemen are almost all men. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:35 | |
This could be a problem. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
SHE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
I'm the one who says, "OK, do that, don't do that." | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
This could be another source of problems. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
I think that by respecting others, you get respect. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:57 | |
Alessandra is one of the country's first female fire chiefs. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
She's headed up operations here for 12 years | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
and sees herself as one of the guys. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
She's running the day shift | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
and the bad weather swiftly triggers the first emergency call-out. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:28 | |
ALARM BELL RINGS | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
It's not a fire but a more common occurrence at this time of year - | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
a boat that's sinking. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
The team head to the busy district of Cannaregio | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
on the north side of the city. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
It only takes one obstruction on Venice's busy waterways to cause chaos. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:21 | |
But with the bad weather now setting in, | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
the team have difficulty reaching the site. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
In Venice, there is the water | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
but the level of water is not the same all the time. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
It changes from one hour to another. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
As water levels rise, any one of the 400 bridges | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
can pose a serious hazard to the exposed firemen. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
With thousands of passengers using the canals each day, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
the half-submerged boat poses a real danger. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
They need to pull it out of the water. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
In bad weather, a boat sinks almost every day. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
The firemen typically pump water from the sunken boat to lighten it | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
before attempting to heave it out of the water. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
Thick snow and choppy waters are hampering the operation. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:44 | |
All the firemen can do is cordon off the area | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
and send another team back once conditions improve. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
At this time of year, the city is as empty as it ever gets. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
It's not just the water-based emergency services | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
who need to adapt to Venice's encroaching winter. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
On land, the sudden blizzards and fluctuating water levels | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
can also complicate vital day-to-day jobs, | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
as Denis Vianello knows all too well. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
Denis often starts at 6:30am, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
cleaning up after revellers or collecting residential refuse. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:12 | |
Each cart can hold 900 litres of rubbish, which Denis has to drag | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
to a designated rubbish stop before it's transferred to a boat. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:39 | |
Once Denis gets the rubbish to the right mooring, | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
it's then loaded onto the boat and crushed. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
Up to 20 cartloads can be transported each shift. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
No matter what the weather, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:35 | |
the city's half a ton of daily rubbish must be dealt with. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:40 | |
500 years ago, those who dumped rubbish illegally | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
were publicly flogged. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
Refuse is still a problem | 0:08:45 | 0:08:46 | |
but the ancient city has a 21st-century solution. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
There's no landfill in Venice, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
so the rubbish is taken along the canal to a processing plant. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
Here, it gets turned into pellets of energy. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
The process is overseen by Massimo Rossi. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
Tourists may create the waste of around 100,000 extra residents, | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
but that in turn creates more power for the city. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
Over on the northeast side of the historic centre, in Castello, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
is the city's only hospital. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:53 | |
This being Venice, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
even a high-tech medical facility has an ornate 15th-century facade. | 0:09:55 | 0:10:00 | |
Part of the hospital is housed in a 13th-century convent, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
dating back to when Venice was a thriving port and maritime power. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
Diseases passed through as often as cargo, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
so it was here that one of Italy's first healthcare systems was born. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
Today, the hospital is still at the cutting edge of care. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
It's from here that its four water ambulances | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
speed across the canals nearly 16,000 times a year. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
Venice's ambulances and emergency room | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
are run by South African-trained Dr Michele Alzetta. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
Living in Venice, we're almost always on the verge of an emergency. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
About 29% of the population in the historical centre of Venice | 0:10:43 | 0:10:48 | |
are old people. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
We have a proportionately larger number of people | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
having health problems here | 0:10:52 | 0:10:55 | |
than in a town with a younger population, of course. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
On average, two emergency call-outs are phoned through | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
to the control centre each hour. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
The team take an emergency call about someone who collapsed at home. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:17 | |
It takes the team just five minutes to get to the right mooring | 0:11:35 | 0:11:38 | |
but on Venice's 30-mile stretch of busy waterways, | 0:11:38 | 0:11:42 | |
finding a place to park isn't always easy. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
Unfortunately, there's another boat parked here | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
so we have to cross this one to get off. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
After a few minutes searching for the patient's address, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
the team realise they can't find it. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
People actually don't know where they live, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
at least not so clearly as to tell somebody else. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
Venice is a collection of separate settlements | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
gradually joined together over 15 centuries. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
The six different districts result in a bewildering maze of streets and squares, | 0:12:23 | 0:12:28 | |
each with their own numbering system. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
Unfortunately, the numbers are not inserted into any of the GPS services. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:37 | |
GPS services don't really work here in Venice. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
Searching for the right address can add precious minutes | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
to the team's response time. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:46 | |
Finally, the house and the patient are located. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
This lady has already had a stroke in the past. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
Up to yesterday evening, she was all right and this morning, | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
she was found with her gaze fixed to the left and not responsive. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:21 | |
The patient is in her late 80s. She's already suffered two strokes. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:25 | |
They need to take her in. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
We have to get back to the hospital now with this lady | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
who has had a stroke. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
I just controlled her parameters but the blood pressure is all right | 0:13:32 | 0:13:36 | |
and she's breathing OK. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:37 | |
Getting back to the hospital thankfully takes just five minutes. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:42 | |
Dr Alzetta barely has time to drop the patient off | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
before he's called out on the next emergency. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
Although the sun has come out, winter makes its presence felt. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:03 | |
Water, the lifeblood of Venice, threatens to overwhelm it. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
The city can flood up to 60 times a year. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
The fire brigade has been called out to rescue another sunken boat, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
this time in the area of Castello. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
Today, they've brought the divers. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
Venice sits in a tidal lagoon | 0:14:28 | 0:14:29 | |
and water levels rise and fall twice a day. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
If boats are moored too tightly, one end dips as water levels fall. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:38 | |
It then fills up with water from waves created by passing traffic. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
The firemen decide to use a system of ropes and pulleys | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
to drag the boat from the canal. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
They try to hoist it but the water inside has made it too heavy. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
The owner of this boat is training to be a gondolier, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
so a sunken practice boat is a setback. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
For residents in Venice, daily life in the city has always been about combining new solutions | 0:15:41 | 0:15:46 | |
with traditional techniques - and death is no different. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
In the late 18th century, Napoleon outlawed burials in Venice, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:56 | |
insisting the bodies be taken across the canal | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
to the island of San Michele. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
Special funeral barges had to be built. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
Today, negotiating the lagoon still poses unique problems | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
for funeral director Nicola Soffiato. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
With 1,100 funerals to conduct each year, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
these barges have been given a 21st-century upgrade. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:42 | |
Nicola has had a lift specially designed by a local company | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
to handle the loading of the coffins onto the boat. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
It's a system which exists nowhere else in the world. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
Today, it's the funeral of Friar Alfonso - a Franciscan friar | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
who, after taking a vow of poverty, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
spent over 40 years in the San Francesco della Vigna convent. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
His involvement in local life made him a much-loved figure. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
Hundreds have turned out to pay their last respects. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
BELLS TOLL | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
Friar Alfonso is one of a privileged few | 0:17:39 | 0:17:43 | |
allowed to be buried in Venice. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
With land so scarce, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
there are waiting lists for the few available plots. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
After the service at the church of San Francesco della Vigna, | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
Friar Alfonso is transferred onto the special funeral boat | 0:18:00 | 0:18:04 | |
and taken to his final resting place, | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
across the canal at San Michele. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
It's eight o'clock | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
and the start of a new shift for the team at the fire station. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
The boats are vigorously examined every day - | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
maintaining the propellers and pumps is the highest priority. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:32 | |
The fire chief, Alessandra, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:36 | |
is one of the few people working here from outside the lagoon. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
Most of the men are local | 0:18:40 | 0:18:41 | |
and today they are losing their longest-serving member. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
Alessandra's deputy, shift boss | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
and Venetian Lele Tagliapietra | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
is taking the register of the 16 men on duty. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:55 | |
It's the last roll-call of his career. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
At the age of 55, the married father of two | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
is about to take early retirement. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
Losing someone like Lele, it's a problem for us | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
because he's full of experience as a Venetian and as a firefighter. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:21 | |
Lele knows better than anyone | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
the risks for every fireman working in Venice. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
ALARM RINGS | 0:19:42 | 0:19:43 | |
But on this shift, there's a greater danger to worry about. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
The most dreaded call of all has come in - fire. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
SIRENS BLARE | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
A fire has been reported in a residential apartment. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
As the city is mainly built on wooden structures with wooden floors | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
and roofs, if fire takes hold, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
it will rapidly spread along the entire block. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
The fire team needs water, quickly, | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
but only some parts of Venice | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
have fire hydrants - and this isn't one of them. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
Hydrants were only installed in the city | 0:20:36 | 0:20:38 | |
following the devastating fire of 1996, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
which claimed the landmark Fenice theatre. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
This iconic 18th-century building | 0:20:49 | 0:20:50 | |
had already been ravaged by fire twice. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:55 | |
This time, the theatre was utterly devastated by the blaze, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
which took two days to extinguish. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:01 | |
Losing the home of some of the world's most famous operas | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
struck a devastating blow to the cultural heart of Venice. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
At the hospital, the ambulance has been called out again, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
but this time the team has much further to travel. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:48 | |
Now we're going to Burano, which is a small island on the Venetian lagoon. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:53 | |
We have a patient with chest pain. We have no other information. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:59 | |
For Dr Alzetta and his team, it's a race against time. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
The Venice hospital has to serve the whole lagoon, | 0:22:16 | 0:22:20 | |
including 13 outlying islands - an area twice the size of Birmingham. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:25 | |
Burano is 20 minutes away at top speed. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
The team can't afford to waste more time | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
looking for the right address once they arrive. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
At Burano, the patient's relatives are on the bank, | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
waiting to rush the doctor to her. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
The patient is an elderly lady | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
and her condition has seriously deteriorated. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
The paramedics begin resuscitation. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
Despite the team's best efforts, this call-out has not ended happily. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:05 | |
So when we got there, she was already in cardiac arrest | 0:23:05 | 0:23:09 | |
for over ten minutes, so we did everything that was indicated, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:15 | |
but the chances were extremely slight and she just didn't make it. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:20 | |
Back at the burning building, the firemen have managed to stop | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
the fire from spreading, but the first-floor apartment | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
is badly damaged and the owners won't be able to return. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
The fire may have been extinguished, but the danger isn't over. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
Once the smoke has dispersed, the fire team can begin | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
their critical checks using a thermal camera. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
In stone houses, | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
the camera is used to detect fire in an adjacent room, but in Venice, | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
fire is more deceitful, as it can be lurking in the wooden structure. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
Walls and ceilings must be checked inch by inch. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
Anything less than 100 degrees means that the building is safe. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:53 | |
The team confirms there are no burning embers in the walls. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:57 | |
They clear the fire scene | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
and have just one more distress call to deal with. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
OK, but which way? | 0:25:14 | 0:25:15 | |
Out there. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
-Thank you. -You're welcome! | 0:25:25 | 0:25:26 | |
After a six-hour operation, the team head back to the station, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
just in time to celebrate shift boss Lele Tagliapietra's last day on the job. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:38 | |
The successful actions of his team today are a fitting end | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
for a Venetian who has devoted his life to keeping the city safe. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
-Lele! -BLEEP! | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
THEY CHEER | 0:26:32 | 0:26:33 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:26:33 | 0:26:35 | |
We're still here. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:40 | |
In the next episode, | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
over 150,000 tourists descend for one of world's oldest | 0:26:52 | 0:26:56 | |
and most spectacular parties - carnival. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
For those putting on the celebrations, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
stakes couldn't be higher. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
The paramedics are called out to rescue carnival tourists. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
When we have carnival, we have a huge amount of drunk people. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
And the police have to deal with a real death in Venice. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 |