The fire in La Palma, “out of control” after affecting more than 4,600 hectares and forcing the eviction of 4,000 residents | Spain

2023-07-16 07:02:23

A new emergency looms over the Canary Island of La Palma. The fire declared in the municipality of Puntagorda, with 2,300 inhabitants (northwest), is advancing without, for now, being able to stop it, according to the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo. “The fire has spread very quickly due to the wind and the weather conditions and the heat wave that has left a lot of material.” The fire “is out of control”, he explained on Saturday afternoon in statements to the media. The flames have so far affected some 4,600 hectares of land in which up to 12 houses have been burned and there are more than 4,000 residents evicted in the municipalities of Tijarafe and Puntagorda, some houses in El Paso, and others near the Caldera National Park. de Taburiente, as well as the astronomical observatory of Roque de los Muchachos.

The gusts of wind have reactivated the tail of the fire in Garafía (in the north of the emergency). The fire is already touching the Caldera de Taburiente in the area of ​​the Los Brecitos viewpoint, and the behavior of the flames “causes fear that it could enter the National Park,” according to the Government of the Canary Islands. In the early afternoon, the Emergency Coordination Center has even announced the evacuation of the urban area in Tijarafe (the neighboring municipality where 2,560 people reside) due to the advance of the flames. The president has called for “responsibility” from the neighbors.

The Cabildo de La Palma has proceeded to completely close the insular network of trails, as well as access and transit, in general, to forest tracks located in areas with a high risk of fire and in forests of public utility; being reserved for fire surveillance, prevention and extinction services.

A column of smoke is seen in the La Palma municipality of Garafía, this Saturday. Miguel Calero (EFE)

Clavijo, accompanied by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Consumption, Héctor Gómez, and by the President of the Cabildo de La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez, thanked the collaboration of the central government and the commitment to send resources from the Ministries of Defense and the Interior to help with evictions. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has transferred to the Canarian president through his Twitter account his “solidarity with the people affected” in La Palma, “especially with those who have been evacuated.”

I have just transferred the president of the Canary Islands, @FClavijoBatllemy solidarity with the people affected by the Puntagorda fire, in La Palma, especially with those who have been evacuated.

We put at your disposal all the necessary means. We have activated the @UMEgob…

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) July 15, 2023

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The new president has modified his agenda ―this Saturday he planned to attend the inauguration of the councilors that make up the Government of the Canary Islands, after his own on Friday in Gran Canaria― and has traveled to the island on the morning of this Saturday to follow the evolution of the fire from the Center for Insular Operational Coordination (Cecopin). He has been joined by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez from the Canary Islands.

The fire started in the vicinity of the LP-1 highway, and the 112 emergency service of the Government of the Canary Islands received the first alert calls at 01:05. At 6:12 a.m., the Island Council requested that the fire go to level 2 and that the operation be taken over by the Government of the Canary Islands. The wind has spread the flames towards the summit, in a southeasterly direction, where air resources are trying to cool the ground to prevent it from advancing towards the Caldera de Taburiente National Park. The circumstance occurs that in the eviction of Tijarafe the ES-Alert system has been used for the first time to notify the population. This tool sends a message to all the mobile terminals that are in the area to be evacuated, in this case between the neighborhoods of Timizara, Aguatavar, Zona del Pinar and the urban center of the municipality.

???? Forest fire in La Palma.

It was declared in El Fayal (Puntagorda) around 1:00 in the morning. The Government of the Canary Islands has activated level 2. pic.twitter.com/Rl3wMjSifi

– Canarias Radio (@laautonomica) July 15, 2023

The environment in which the llamas are located is eminently rural. Crops, scrub and pine trees proliferate in it, and it also houses homes. Around 300 people from the Cabildo de La Palma, Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (Brif) of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Forest Fire Intervention and Reinforcement Teams (EIRIF) of the Government of the Canary Islands, are intervening by land. La Palma Fire Department, Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), Canary Islands Police General Corps, Civil Guard, Local Police, Tenerife Fire Consortium, Canary Islands Police General Corps, Military Emergency Unit (UME) and Land Unit and Advanced Command Post of the Government Emergency and Rescue Group.

During the day, up to ten air resources have participated: three helicopters from the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) of the Government of the Canary Islands, another three from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, which also provides a cargo plane on the ground and a forest brigade. In addition, a helicopter from the Cabildo de Tenerife, another from Gran Canaria and a helicopter from the Civil Guard are present.

A car burned by the flames of the forest fire declared at dawn on Saturday, July 15, in the municipality of Puntagorda, on the island of La Palma. Miguel Calero (EFE)

The islands have gone through a heat wave this past week that left the highest temperatures in all of Spain on Wednesday. The village of San Nicolás and San Bartolomé de Tirajana, both in Gran Canaria, registered 41.8 and 40.6 degrees, respectively. The island of La Palma was no stranger to this phenomenon: the municipality of Puntagorda itself came to suffer 40.3 degrees. Thus, in addition to the one in La Palma, two other fire outbreaks have been declared this Saturday in the south of Gran Canaria and in Tenerife.

The island of La Palma (with just over 75,000 inhabitants) is one of the most densely forested in the archipelago. The last big fire that it suffered occurred at the end of August 2020 in the municipality of El Paso, just a year before the volcano erupted in that same term. That fire affected an area of ​​around 1,200 hectares in total, although the burned land was estimated at 800 hectares of Canarian pine, pasture, scrubland and some vineyard crops, as well as some houses.