More than 3,800 people remained evacuated late yesterday and another 4,000 confined to their homes as a result of the fire that broke out on Tuesday night in Arafo, in Tenerife, and which is already affecting six municipalities on the Canary Island and is spreading without control to the north over a 32 kilometer perimeter. In addition to Arafo, Candelaria, El Rosario, La Victoria de Acentejo, Santa Úrsula and La Orotava are threatened, both to the north and south of the island.
The president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, recognized yesterday that this fire that is advancing on different fronts and is out of control is the worst that the island has suffered in the last forty years. As he pointed out, the embers, the slopes and the falling and rolling cones generating new sources force us to reconsider the strategy to stop the fire at all times.
The 17 land aerial means that participate in the extinction work, as well as about 370 troops concentrated their efforts yesterday on cooling the housing areas to prevent the very virulent fire from devastating them. For now it has been achieved and there are no affected. The causes of the fire are unknown, but, as it was generated, everything indicates that it could have been intentional.
Until yesterday, about 3,275 hectares were affected in an agricultural and livestock area, and with great environmental wealth. The fire has also forced the evacuation of thousands of people and the eviction of hundreds of animals, which have moved to makeshift shelters. Horses, chickens, pigs and goats are some of the specimens that have moved preventively, as indicated yesterday by the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila.
The evolution of the “active and very dynamic” fire, as Clavijo defined it, forced the Teide National Park to be closed to tourists yesterday. From 6:00 p.m., once the visitors had left the area, all accesses were closed and the Las Cañadas del Teide inn was evicted. The visitors were transferred to other tourist establishments on the island in order to avoid complications in the event of a possible unfavorable evolution of the fire.
Yesterday, only a hundred people remained housed in the four resources set up for the evicted, since most have relocated to the homes of relatives and friends. The anguish spread yesterday among the affected residents, who had to leave wearing their clothes and have had to leave behind all their belongings before the advance of the flames. “You never know what you’re going to find when you return,” said one of the evicted yesterday, who pointed out that what happened “was seen coming” because there had been several attempts in recent weeks and the land “is dry.”
The poor air quality in some municipalities as a result of the smoke, made up of the mixture of gases and small particles caused by the burning of the vegetation, forced yesterday to confine the population of the urban area of ??La Esperanza (El Rosario). The head of Civil Protection and Emergency Attention of the Government of the Canary Islands, Montse Román, pointed out the possibility that today the smoke spreads to the metropolitan areas of La Laguna and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the use of masks outside of enclosed spaces.
