The president of Council of Tenerife, Pedro Martín, reported yesterday that the forest fire declared in the North continues to stabilize and that it is expected that in the next few hours progress can be made towards the declaration of control. In addition, he added that the roads and access to the island’s forest areas have been reopened, with the exception of the close to the fire. To this must be added the improvement in weather conditions that have allowed a notable drop in temperatures, which helps the tasks of cooling the ground that are being carried out by the air and land resources that work in the area, mainly in the Tigaiga slope.
“The situation during the night has been very favorable, with little wind, which helps us a lot, along with the drop in temperatures and, of course, the work of the teams, which continues to allow us to say that the situation is stabilized, although We still cannot say that it is controlled,” said the island president.
Martín explained that from 06:00 a.m. yesterday morning, the accesses to the mountain on the Island were opened, allowing activities to be resumed in the forest areas, with the exception of the fire zone and its surroundings, where safety measures are maintained. restriction for security reasons, and to prevent the control tasks that are still being carried out from being hindered. Likewise, he recalled that the island roads TF-21 and TF-344 have been opened to traffic, putting an end to the restrictions that had been determined on the island’s circulation routes.
The island president indicated that “today there are between 30 and 35 land resources of the Forestry Brigades of the Cabildo de Tenerife and three helicopters working in the area to continue cooling and monitoring, with special emphasis on the part of concern, in Los Realejos, the slope from Tigaiga.
Hectares affected
For her part, the Island Councilor for Management of the Natural Environment and Security, Isabel García, indicated that “we have already been able to better quantify the amount of affected area, which adds up to 2,753 hectares and a total of 34 kilometers of perimeter. As far as Teide National Park is concerned, 226 hectares have been affected, of which 213 have been pine forest and 13, broom.
According to the resolution issued by the Cabildo de Tenerife, and which has been sent to the affected municipalities, transit is temporarily prohibited in the area affected by the fire, both off-road or along any path, sidewalk or track in the forest area. , except for management reasons or due to force majeure. This measure affects the municipalities of Los Realejos, San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha and, partially, Icod de los Vinos, where it has been determined that from the Cruz del Majano, Icod Firewall and Reventón de Cangas tracks to the East, there are no traffic restrictions.
In addition, in the municipal terms of San Juan de La Rambla and Los Realejos, traffic is closed above the TF-344, from the municipal limit of La Guancha to Pista Lolita. In that area you can only enter for the basic maintenance of the farms and for the care of the animals.
Likewise, the recreational areas and camping areas of El Lagar (Icod de los Vinos), Fuente Pedro (La Orotava), Chanajiga (Los Realejos) and La Tahona (San Juan de la Rambla), as well as the Emilio camp, are temporarily closed. Fernández Muñoz (Los Realejos) and the classroom in Nature and Barranco de la Arena camp (La Guancha). These prohibitions will remain until a new assessment of the situation is made by the Technical Services.
The Cabildo will report again on the situation of the fire at nine in the morning today, just before the ordinary plenary session of the Insular Corporation is held. A session in which an institutional motion is expected to be approved, that is, backed by all the political groups with representation in the Island Corporation, in support of the municipalities and those affected by the fire that started in Los Realejos.
Two other motions related to the fire will also be debated, in this case one from the PP, requesting that permanent aerial means be implemented against fires in Tenerife, and another from Sí Podemos Canarias in which it requests that the public expenses of the Motor Circuit be allocated to the prevention and extinction of fires.
Gratitude
Yesterday some of the affected municipalities expressed their gratitude to the extinguishing media involved in the control and stabilization of this fire, such as the City Council of La Guancha, which, through its social networks, expressed its gratitude “for the capital delivery of the BRIFOR, BRIF and EIRIF; to the entire UME team, Bravo and Presa teams, and to all the members of the Tenerife Firefighters Consortium. Our most sincere thanks to those responsible for the air operation, to the agents of the Local Police, Canarian Police, National Police and Civil Guard…”.
