The forest fire that began last Thursday, July 21, in the Los Campeches area, in Icod el Alto, and which affected, in addition to Los Realejos, La Guancha, San Juan de la Rambla, Icod de Los Vinos and La Orotava , in the Teide National Park area, continues checkedbut it will take months to extinguish it completely, said Francisco Rodríguez, chief of environmental agents of the Council of Tenerife.
The fire has affected some 2,753 hectares, of which 226 in the Teide National Park, in a perimeter of more than 34 kilometers, however, it did not affect all places the same, and while there are burned areas, in others it was a fire of ground, in others of glass, and there are also redoubts where the flames did not reach them.
In those moments, the work that is done is to put an end to the hot spots”, the issue that worries the most is, not so much if it is within the perimeter itself, as if it resurfaced on one of the flanks as recently in Los Campeches.
The Chief of environmental agents of the Cabildo de Tenerife, explained to EFE, during a meeting with the media, that “these points are places where there is still a high concentration of heat and can cause the fire to reproduce again”, for there are still stumps or roots that continue to burn.
In order to keep them under control, 40 ground troops and a helicopter -especially those operating on the slope of Tigaiga- are working on cooling these locations and acting if traces of smoke are observed. Once this function is finished, it will be necessary to clean: “We have lost a lot of plant cover that was on the ground, so now we have to fight against the possible effects of erosion,” explained Rodríguez. And, in the long term, the goal will focus on “recovering the ecosystem as much as possible.”
The media visited various affected enclaves in the forest mass of Los Realejos and San Juan de la Rambla, the first municipality to request the declaration as a catastrophic area due to the “profound damage” that this fire caused in especially fragile and vulnerable areas.
One of the areas visited after the fire passed was La Tahona, whose recreational area was the only one that did not burn in the 2007 fire or now, unlike its surroundings. For experts, this may be due to the fact that the place “has the shape of a pot, so the fire passed from one loin to another, avoiding it.”
Also, it is repeated a couple of meters further, in an interface area between the mountain and a populated area, where the flames “have burned entire farms” but have stopped when they reached a cereal crop, drawing a line between what burned and what he was able to resist. It will be studied what could determine that the flames devastated the brambles, ferns and fruit trees and did not do so with the rye that acted as a firewall.
Francisco Rodríguez insisted that this situation shows that “the fires do not affect equally” all the places they pass through. “Fire does not act with the same virulence in all conditions, it varies depending on whether it is night or day or whether it crosses flat or steep terrain,” among many other factors. “That’s why we see that, in this case, there are unburned areas, half-burned areas and completely burned areas,” he said.
Likewise, when walking through the various affected areas where layers of ash have replaced the earth, young trees can be seen that have not been able to withstand the flames and others that only have some branches bent towards the source of the heat. Looking ahead to winter, torrential rains could cause drag.
restrictions
The Cabildo assumed last Thursday the powers of the fire and maintains the obligation to respect the access restrictions to the affected environment. Thus, transit is temporarily prohibited, both cross-country or along any trail, path or track in the forest area, except for management reasons or force majeure.
The measure affects 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 runways to the East There are no traffic restrictions. In addition, in San Juan de La Rambla and Los Realejos traffic is closed over the TF-344, from the limit of La Guancha to Pista Lolita. In that area you can only enter for the basic maintenance of the farms and the care of the animals.
The recreational areas and camping areas of El Lagar, Fuente Pedro, Chanajiga and La Tahona are also closed, as well as the Emilio Fernández camp and the Barranco de la Arena Nature classroom.
