FIRE reduced Venice's world famous La Fenice opera house to a ruin yesterday prompting fresh alarm over the threat to the historic city from a lack of adequate fire fighting facilities.
As the Italian government and the European Union pledged funds help the 18th century landmark rise again from the ashes" (fenice is the Italian word for phoenix), it emerged that firemen had to reach the scene on foot. Two adjacent canals had been drained for dredging and consequently motor launches were unable to approach the blaze on Monday night.
To fight the fire water had to be pumped from the Grand Canal and raised from the Venice lagoon by helicopter. At one stage flames shot 50 metres into the night sky.
All that remains are four black walls," the Italian Cultural Heritage Minister, Mr Antonio Paolucci, said. "One of the world's leading theatres has gone."
The roof of the building collapsed into the theatre, with its tiered scarlet and gold interior, shortly after the blaze broke out at 10 p.m. (Irish time) on Monday. There were no casualties as the theatre was empty.
La Fenice, opened in 1792 and rebuilt after burning to the ground in 1836, had been closed for restoration since last August. Early reports suggested a short circuit may have started the fire.
Mr Paolucci said the government would take urgent steps to help rebuild what he called "the last gift the Venetian Republic made to the world", and government sources said an initial 20 billion lire (£8 million) would be set aside.
Prof Giuseppe Cristinelli, a professor of restoration at Venice University, said damage could total 500 billion lire (£200 million). It is thought any reconstruction could take up to five years.
Luciano Pavarotti called La Fenice the most beautiful theatre in Italy and offered to perform a free concert to help towards the restoration.
Sadness at the loss was accompanied by fresh warnings of the fire risks to Venice's artistic and cultural treasures. Although the city is built on water, it has no fixed fire hydrants and experts have warned repeatedly of the need for urgent action.
LaFenice, built on the site of a building razed by fire in the 1770s, counted Napoleon among its patrons and staged the opening nights of many Verdi operas in the 19th century. It had been due to reopen in March for the first date of a European tour by Woody Allen and his jazz band.
The EU Commission responded to the immediate crisis by offering 100,000 ecus (£80,000).
The artists of La Fenice, currently on tour in Europe, wept in Warsaw when they heard news of the fire, a spokesman said. President Aleksander Kwasniewski visited the group to express the Polish people's solidarity, the spokesman added.