SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 26. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The forest fire that broke out last Thursday in the north of Tenerife and affects five municipalities: La Orotava, Los Realejos, San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha and Icod de los Vinos, “is beginning to walk towards its end” and it is expected that in the next few days it can drop to level 1, becoming under the direction of the Cabildo.
This was reported at a press conference by the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands, Julio Pérez, who stressed that, although it has been a hard day, the fire has reignited in very few and very localized points, specifically in Chanajiga and the slope of Tigaiga, which is the only flank that has hot spots, while the rest of the perimeter has no activity, so everything indicates that the fire “remains stable and is advancing towards the control situation” .
The counselor pointed out that, if this situation continues in the coming days, the number of media that are working on the extinction work will be progressively reduced and level 2 will be lowered to 1 so that it is the Cabildo de Tenerife that returns to take control of the emergency.
Julio Pérez indicated that, according to the information provided by the director of the Teide National Park, Manuel Durbán, the impact of the fire on the National Park has been “relatively minor or scarce”, with an area affected of 226 hectares, of which 213 they would be pine forests and 13 brooms, a species threatened by climate change, and some very old cedars may have been lost. In any case, right now there are no flames in this area and it has been possible to access the place by land.
The device that will work during this night is made up of 70 combatants who are vigilant so that there are no reactivations, in addition to some 50 people from security, coordination and logistics bodies. Tomorrow 115 troops will be on the ground in extinction tasks. During the six days that have passed since the start of the fire, the Red Cross has distributed almost 3,800 food rations among the members of the operation.
On the other hand, the direction of the INFOCA Plan today decided to maintain the eviction order for the residents of El Madroño, Los Realejos, about 40 people, as a precaution due to its proximity to Ladera de Tigaiga, until further technical assessment.
The counselor was accompanied at the press conference by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán; the technical director of the INFOCA Plan and deputy director of Civil Protection, Marta Moreno, and the head of the firefighting teams, Pedro Martínez, and the Councilor for the Environment and Safety of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Isabel García.
The Secretary of State for the Environment highlighted the efforts of the means to deal with all the active fires in the country in recent days and the response capacity thanks to the coordination and collaboration of the different administrations.
For her part, Marta Moreno reported that during the day there have been three assistances due to accidents to members of the firefighting teams, which were not related to the fire nor were they a consequence of the fire, who were transferred to health centers, although none had gravity.
Tomorrow the 10 aerial means of extinction will be maintained, in addition to the coordination helicopter of the Civil Guard. Moreno added that, until yesterday, more than 3.5 million liters of water had been discharged.
Meanwhile, Pedro Martínez assured that although the fire situation has improved, the Tigaiga hillside continues to be a cause for concern, where there are still many points of smoke that have been reduced by the action of aerial means. “The problem -he explained- is that” we cannot close it with ground means and it still has the risk of rolling elements falling that cause races “.
As for the area that affects the El Teide National Park, Pedro Martínez explained that practically no activity has taken place, except in an isolated point. “If the improvement is confirmed, tomorrow night we will have a different vision before the arrival of the wet masses of the next few days,” he added.
The Councilor for the Environment and Safety of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Isabel García, recalled that the ban on carrying out activities in the mountains throughout the island is still in force and asked for citizen collaboration.
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