2023-07-19 22:29:46
The forest fire declared at dawn last Saturday in the municipality of Puntagorda, on the island of La Palma, has been declared stabilized at 1:00 p.m. today, Wednesday, throughout its perimeter, with an affected area of 2,900 hectares, a figure that it could be even less, once the manual perimeter is done in the next few days.
This has been reported by the Minister of the Presidency, Public Administrations and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands, Nieves Lady Barreto, who has appeared at a press conference to report on the evolution of the fire.
“Magnificent” work done on La Palma
The Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, highlighted this Wednesday the “magnificent” work that has been carried out by all the media active on the island of La Palma after the forest fire was declared in Puntagorda.
Pestana has indicated, in statements to journalists, that “many troops” have been available for this fire, specifically, he stated that of the five permanent air resources that exist in the Canary Islands, four acted from the outset, while the fifth joined in the afternoon and a sixth in the early morning of the following day, all of them coordinated by the Civil Guard helicopter.
He added that to the air resources we must add the more than 200 soldiers from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) corresponding to four sections –two from the Canary Islands and another two from Seville–, plus the 38 troops from the Reinforcement Brigade in Forest Fires (BRIF), as well as providing security “to a lesser degree” by the National Police because “it is out of their coverage”, but they helped on a road that left Santa Cruz de La Palma, which is the Roque a los Muchachos.
“The first day was very scary”
In addition to some 205 Civil Guard troops, he said, in different shifts that have been made available to the authorities who are in charge of the fire.
In this way, he concluded, it is available and “gathering from the peninsula the means that were needed to reinforce this action against a fire that on the first day scared a lot” due to the “so rapid” progress that there was.
“The conditions were very adverse that day but later the weather helped make it easier to fight it,” he concluded.
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