2023-08-16 16:17:52
A forest fire in the Tenerife municipalities of Arafo and Candelaria, where more than 33,000 people reside, affects some 800 hectares, according to information from 112 Canarias. The flames have forced the preventive evacuation of several of its population centers and the cutting of two highways. The fire, which affects the northeast area of the island, began around midnight this Tuesday between the Los Loros-Los Brezos highway, but throughout the early hours of this Wednesday it intensified and the authorities raised its level of dangerousness and requested resources from the central government. 13 aerial means, 150 ground troops and 60 members of police forces work in the area, according to data from 2:00 p.m. this Wednesday. The Military Emergency Unit has already been mobilized. “The fire is very strong and is in a complicated area,” the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, assured during the morning, who also pointed out that it has several sources. “These first hours are going to be fundamental,” he added. The island is on alert for the risk of fires and maximum temperatures.
The president of the Canary Islands has offered a press conference in which the president of the Cabildo and the mayoress of Candelaria have also participated to inform about the extinction tasks. “The technicians are concentrating all the work so that it does not affect the homes and population, but in the part, perhaps more north, northeast, the work of land [resulta] very difficult and we are going to see how it evolves and hope that the firewalls and roads do containment work ”, Clavijo detailed.
The nuclei evacuated preventively last night were Arrate, Chivisaye, Media Montaña and Ajafoña. The evictions affected some five families, according to data from the regional government, which did not rule out the preventive displacement of other nuclei throughout the day. This Wednesday at noon the Jeva area and above the State Pond towards the mountain, known as Las Cuevecitas, have been evicted, as reported by the Candelaria City Council. The closed roads are TF 23, between Las Lagunetas and El Portillo, and TF 523, Carretera Los Loros, according to information from the Cabildo de Tenerife.
Pedro Martínez, head of service of the Cabildo de Tenerife, explained that the fire started in a pine forest area very close to the ridge and the weather was pushing it towards Santa Cruz de Tenerife, located about 20 kilometers from Candelaria, and towards the towns of lower levels. For this reason, during the night the attack focused on stopping the advance into populated areas and a control line was established on the Los Loros highway to prevent it from growing south.
The expected progress of the fire is towards the municipality of El Rosario (17,750 residents), which is why the preventive eviction of the Las Lagunetas area is being carried out. The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, has advanced that an evacuation will also be carried out from kilometer 3 of the TF-523, which mainly includes scattered population centers.
The authorities have urged the population not to access the mountain “at any point” in Tenerife and have asked the municipalities to cut off access to forest areas. President Clavijo has assured that he has already contacted the Government to mobilize, if necessary, more air resources from the Peninsula.
The mayoress of Candelaria (27,641 inhabitants), María Concepción Brito (PSOE), explained that the evicted area is not within her municipal area, but belongs to the bordering Arajo (5,562 residents), and that they are residents who live in an environment rural, who manage animal farms and some elderly people. The councilor has stressed that the evacuation was “very fast” and that the area affected by the fire is mostly agricultural, where “few people” live. She has not been able to specify how many days they will continue in this situation and she has also shown her suspicions that the flames have been intentional. “There is a line of fire, which can be seen from the coast where several sources are observed. I can’t go any further. In my opinion, this has not been accidental ”, she stated in an interview on La hora de la 1, on RTVE. According to the mayoress, a few weeks ago “there were a couple of attempts” of fire in her town. On July 15, another fire was declared, also in the same area, on the borders of the municipalities of Arafo and Candelaria.
The Cabildo de Tenerife, initially in charge of putting out the fire, had requested the Government of the Canary Islands to declare a Level 2 Emergency situation, something that implies that the Canarian Executive assumes the direction of the emergency. The increase in the emergency level of the fire has allowed the arrival of new media, including some 50 troops from the Military Emergency Unit. At the moment, the terrestrial means of the Cabildo de Tenerife, members of the Consortium of Firefighters and volunteer firefighters from Güímar and La Laguna are participating in the extinction of the flames. During the morning the air resources of the regional Executive and the central Government have been incorporated.
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