The cooling temperatures have slowed the spread of the fire on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma. Firefighters were able to contain the flames. However, more than 5000 hectares of land have already been devastated.
In the case of the devastating fires on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma, the authorities have partially given the all-clear. The weather conditions and, above all, cooling temperatures helped the firefighters, said the head of the regional administration, Sergio Rodríguez, in a video distributed on online networks. The flames would be favored “by the wind, the climate, the heat wave,” said the President of the Canary Islands Regional Government, Fernando Clavijo.
Thousands of people brought to safety
The air temperature had “dropped significantly”. As a result, the flames would have slowed and emergency services could have contained their spread. The fire broke out early Saturday morning near the town of Puntagorda. On Sunday morning, the air temperature was 24 degrees – a significant drop compared to the at least 40 degrees that had been measured on the previous days.
Within a few hours, the flames had devastated more than 5,000 hectares of land on Saturday, and 4,000 people had to leave their homes, according to the authorities. About 20 houses and other buildings were destroyed by Sunday. According to official information, an area of about 46 square kilometers was affected.
Fire reached national park
Tourism Minister Héctor Gómez spoke on Saturday of a “fire that spread extremely quickly”. On Sunday, he then said on TVE “confident that we can put an end to this fire in the next few hours, days”.
According to the Spanish police, the fire has now reached the “Caldera de Taburiente” national park in the center of the island. However, its director Angel Palomares assured that the fire was progressing “very slowly”.
Heatwave in Spain
All of Spain, including its islands, is suffering from unusual heat and drought this year. The country experienced the hottest spring since weather records began, and Spain is currently groaning under a heat wave. The weather conditions favor the outbreak of fires. Since the beginning of 2023, 66,000 hectares of land have already burned in Spain.