A forest fire declared yesterday morning on the outskirts of the municipality of Puntagorda, in the north-west of the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, had burned an area of ??more than 4,500 hectares yesterday afternoon and had forced the evacuation more than 2,000 people faced the risk posed by the flames. The high temperatures, strong winds and the absence of humidity complicated the extinguishing tasks.
The powerful fire drifted into secondary foci and expelled the flames 200 meters away towards areas of both crops and hedges and pine forest. The head of the fire entered the municipality of Tijarafe, so evacuations took place in different areas of the municipalities initially affected. In addition, there is a residence for the elderly that is confined and the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, where telescopes from the Institut d’Astrofísica de les Canarias (IAC) are located, has been evacuated.
The weather forecasts worried the authorities of the island of La Palma yesterday afternoon, since the wind could reach 70 kilometers per hour and there was a possibility that the fire would reach other municipalities. The flames advanced quickly, favored by temperatures exceeding 30 degrees.
The fire was categorized as a level 2 severity early in the morning, which is why, at the request of the town hall, the Government of the Canary Islands took over the management of the emergency.
The huge flames, which affect farmland, but also pine hills, yesterday caused large columns of smoke and dyed the sky yellow. Even from space you could see the effects of the devastating fire, which at the time of closing this edition was still far from being contained and controlled. In the early afternoon, the emergency coordination center announced the evacuation of the core of Tijarafe.
Faced with the need to provide accommodation, the authorities enabled the Severo Rodríguez sports center, in Los Llanos de Aridane, where around 25 people were cared for by the Red Cross.
For the first time, the ES-Alerta public warning system has been used in the Canary Islands, which is called reverse 1-1-2, which sends a message to all mobile phones in the area that must be evacuated, between the neighborhoods of Timizara, Aguatavar, El Pinar and the urban center of Tijarafe.
More than a dozen homes were affected by the flames. The danger of the event necessitated the preventive evacuation of several hundred people, with no personal injuries recorded. The residence for the elderly in the municipality of Puntagorda was confined yesterday afternoon, awaiting the evolution of the fire.
The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, was cautious about the evolution of the fire, given the change in conditions imposed by the wind. “If the weather cooperates with us, it seems that in principle throughout the day today [yesterday], with the means that are being put on the ground, we could try to control it, but the wind is very variable, expect strong gusts and you need to be very careful”, he said.
The town hall of La Palma closed the insular network of trails in the affected area, and to access and traffic in general, so that the forest tracks in areas of high risk of fires and on mountains of public utility were reserved for surveillance, fire prevention and extinguishing services.
Festive, recreational, sporting or similar events planned throughout the island organized by any administration and the use of fire in any agricultural activity were also suspended.
The Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands (IAC) decided to evacuate the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory as a preventive measure against the evolution of the forest fire. On its social networks, the IAC indicated that until further notice the observatory was closed to scientific activity and explained that the scientific staff of the various telescopes had begun to be evacuated. At the observatory there is a technical reinforcement to support the brigades fighting the fire if necessary.
More than 300 personnel intervened on the ground yesterday, including means from the town hall of La Palma and many other administrations, to carry out different tasks. The forecast was that up to ten aerial vehicles from different administrations would participate: three helicopters and an Air Tractor ground cargo plane from the State, three helicopters from the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) of the Government of the Canary Islands, a helicopter from the cabido of Tenerife and another from Gran Canaria, as well as a Civil Guard helicopter for air coordination tasks. Two FOCA seaplanes were also activated.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, showed his “solidarity” on Twitter with the people affected by the fire in Puntagorda (La Palma) with a message conveyed to the President of the Canary Islands, and made available to the Canary authorities “all the necessary means”. “We have activated the UME, which joins the forces of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition in the extinction tasks”, he said.
