After almost three days of uncontrollable spread of flames, firefighters on Friday noted some improvements on the island of Tenerife, where 4,000 hectares were devastated by the “most complex” fire of the last four decades for the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries.
At midday, the authorities noted “a favorable development” on the main front of the fire, said during a press conference Montserrat Román, head of the civil protection department of the archipelago, located in off the west coast of Africa. This forest fire, which started on Tuesday evening, burned around 3,800 hectares over a perimeter of 42 kilometers, according to the latest report, mobilizing more than 250 firefighters, 17 aircraft, but also more than 200 members of the military unit. of the Ministry of Defense (UME), which intervenes on the most serious fires in Spain.
“Last night, the fire and the weather behaved ‘normally’. The two previous nights, we had observed quite unusual winds, temperatures and even behavior of the fire, ”welcomed Fernando Clavijo, the president of the regional government of the Canaries, during a press conference on Friday morning. The fire, he insisted, “behaved during the night in a more normal way”, the extreme weather conditions having complicated the operations of the firefighters, but also of aerial reconnaissance.
Partial lifting of containment
The improvement of the situation at midday made it possible to ease the confinement of the surroundings of La Esperanza, a locality located near the northern flank of the fire, where the efforts of the firefighters are concentrated. About 4,500 people have been evacuated since the outbreak of the fire and nearly 1,700 remain confined on Friday, against 4,000 a few hours earlier, according to a report updated at midday by Román.
Camp beds have been installed by the Red Cross in a gymnasium in the town of La Orotava to accommodate the displaced, noted an AFP photographer. Outside, animals were also collected by associations.
Teide National Park, popular with tourists, has been closed since Thursday evening. The cloud of smoke, visible on the satellite images, exceeded the summit of Teide, a volcano which overlooks the island and the highest point of Spain with its 3,715 meters of altitude, while the main foci of the fire are located on wooded hills about twenty kilometers below, near several villages. From the sea, entire sections of the forest are hidden by thick clouds of smoke that the winds are unable to dissipate, noted an AFPTV journalist.