The massive forest fire that devastated the Spanish island of Tenerife, burning more than 2,600 hectares of land, is the “most complex” fire to hit the Canary Islands in four decades, the regional government said on Thursday.
The fire, which started Tuesday evening, burns through a forested area of steep ravines in the northeastern part of the island, which is part of the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa.
So far, the fire, which has a circumference of 30 kilometers, has destroyed more than 2,600 hectares and affected about 7,600 people, many of whom have been evacuated, authorities said in a morning update.
On Thursday morning, people were evacuated from 10 small towns and villages in the region, authorities announced, while also ordering residents to stay in their homes as a precaution in La Esperanza, about five kilometers from the airport of the north of the island . , Tenerife North.
There were no immediate reports of affected flights.
“It was a very difficult night… this is probably the most complex fire we’ve had in the last 40 years in the Canary Islands,” Fernando Clavijo, regional leader of the seven-island archipelago, told reporters. “The extreme heat and weather conditions… make the job difficult,” he added.
More than 250 firefighters, supported by 17 air forces, were mobilized to fight the blaze, with Military Emergency Unit (UME) troops also being mobilized, which regularly help fight some of the most dangerous fires.
“A new detachment of troops from the UME will arrive in the afternoon,” Clavijo said, with the defense ministry stating that the number of soldiers sent to Tenerife will increase to more than 200.
“We are facing a fire like we have never seen before in the Canary Islands,” said meteorologist Vicky Palma, pointing to the huge column of smoke from a fire that had already spread for 34 hours on Thursday morning.
Local authorities are cutting the roads leading to the mountains in the northeastern part of the island.
“We ask the population to respect these roadblocks,” said Montserrat Roman, head of the archipelago’s civil protection service.
The fire started after the islands were hit by a heat wave that left many areas dry.
With global temperatures rising due to climate change, scientists are warning that heat waves will become more frequent and intense, with a much broader impact.
In 2022, a particularly bad year for forest fires in Europe, Spain was the country most affected, with nearly 500 fires destroying more than 300,000 hectares, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
So far this year, more than 71,000 hectares have been destroyed by fire in Spain, one of the European countries most vulnerable to climate change.
Source: DN
