SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 29. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has considered the fire that has occurred in the Los Realejos area to be controlled this Friday, after the evolution during this Thursday and last night has been “very positive” thanks to the “remarkable drop” in temperatures and the “increased humidity”.
This was indicated by the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, in a press conference in which he admitted that “this has greatly helped the extinction tasks” once the island institution took charge of the fire when it passed to level 1.
The fire that has affected some 2,753 hectares in a perimeter of approximately 34 kilometers, explained that it has been decided to consider it under control as “no” smoke can be seen practically on the slope of Tigaiga, which was the area that caused the most concern, although the work “intense” of the forestry brigades of the Cabildo and the aerial media have allowed it to be considered controlled.
In any case, he has indicated that in the coming days they will continue to work because “it is likely” that there may be small points with smoke and intervention will have to be made, although, he clarified, that “is part of the normal process”, so they will continue to be vigilant.
Martín has also valued the fact of being able to use drones in the intervention, which has allowed them to obtain “magnificent results”, since it has enabled them to have an attack strategy, while at the same time helping to protect “better” those who are First line.
For her part, the island councilor for the Natural Environment, Isabel García, recalled that in the first hours this fire “greatly worried”, although she considered that “there have been two keys” to be able to stop it.
Specifically, García also referred to the introduction of new technologies, the drones mentioned by the island president, and the “role” that the Brifor troops have had, of which he has assured “the people of Tenerife can feel proud “.
García pointed out that they were the ones who “made everyone work like clockwork” the teams that joined once the fire reached level 2. In this sense, he clarified that although “many times” the aerial means are “spectacular “, we must also highlight the ground teams that are the ones who do the burning or are facing flames of up to 60 meters. “They have managed to avoid many misfortunes,” he added.
Both the president of Tenerife and the councilor Isabel García have thanked the efforts of all the teams that have participated in this fire, as well as organizations such as the Red Cross, which have distributed some 3,000 meals, or the State Security Forces and Corps.
For his part, the coordinator of the technical work of the Los Realejos fire, Pedro Martínez, explained that in this fire the first operations were to protect the population in the upper area of Los Campeches and stated that the “most hard” occurred on the second and third day because the wind turned completely towards the valley “with flame heights of up to 60 meters” and the next morning when the fire appeared in the valley.
Later, he said, the operations “came out again and from that day on the surface has been practically contained” in the 2,700 hectares. Now, he added, we must continue to be vigilant and this will imply that some discharge of water is produced in order to later assess the environmental and infrastructure damage.
In relation to this, he has admitted that he is “very concerned” about the environmental damage that may have occurred in Tigaiga.
INVESTIGATE THE ORIGIN
Regarding the origin of the fire, the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, has indicated that the investigations began “a couple of days” ago and “there are indications that could lead us to suppose that it was caused”, although he has indicated that they are waiting for what they say.
In this sense, Martín has clarified that “it is not the first time that they occur in the area, two weeks ago there was an attempt”, for which he has requested the collaboration of citizens so that “they warn of anyone they see in the mountains and that could be thought to cause a fire”, since in this case he has stated that “there are few reasons for it to be purely fortuitous”.
Finally, given the heat wave that is expected to affect the Canary Islands again at the end of the week, it has been pointed out that they “do not” rule out taking preventive measures.
