SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Aug. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The management of the forest fire that started in the municipality of Arafo, on the island of Tenerife, on the night of August 15, has decided to cut off all access to the Teide National Park due to the evolution of the fire that affects more than 2,600 hectares. of several municipalities –Arafo, Candelaria, La Victoria de Acentejo, Santa Úrsula, La Oratova and El Rosario– in a perimeter that reaches 32 kilometers and that has caused the evacuation, as well as the confinement of more than 7,600 people in the last hours.
The access roads to the Teide National Park via La Esperanza, in the municipality of El Rosario, and via La Orotava were already closed, although it has now been decided to proceed with the closure from the south as well.
In this way, all accesses will be cut off to remove the traffic of people and facilitate the work of firefighting from 6:00 p.m., as indicated by both the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, at a press conference.
This will also cause the suspension of the TITSA 348 bus line, which runs between Paradores and Puerto de La Cruz, while line 342 will be affected and will only run between Adeje and Vilaflor.
Likewise, the Institute of Astrophysics has decided to close, while the Parador del Teide is analyzing the situation in which it remains but obviously the “objective is that there is no one inside the Teide National Park,” said the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, that he has admitted that what is most worrying is the northern area because it is still “out of control”, hence the decision to cut off all access, both from the north and from the south.
Clavijo stressed that the next few hours will be “determining”, while he has valued the “unbeatable” work that the firefighting teams are doing despite the fact that the weather conditions are making it a “very difficult” job.
For her part, the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, has asked to be “very attentive” to official sources, in case new evacuations are necessary.
On this, he has qualified that the evacuations carried out are having a “big impact” in the field of animals, since many animals have had to be displaced and they have relocated “quite a lot” –horses, chickens, sheep, pigs– on farms in Tenerife.
Dávila also pointed out that Turismo de Tenerife is keeping the entire sector, both internal and external, informed with the aim of “not alarming but communicating” about the scale of the fire.
FOUR RELOCATIONS OF THE ELDERLY AND DEPENDENTS
For her part, the Minister of Social Welfare of the Government of the Canary Islands, Candelaria Delgado, has reported that due to the smoke it has been decided, in coordination with the Cabildo de Tenerife and municipalities affected by the fire, the redistribution of elderly and dependent people with serious respiratory problems to public health centers in Tacoronte and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Specifically, he said that four people who were in Arafo have been displaced but he has stated that he is in “permanent contact” with the social services of the municipalities in case it is necessary to make more relocations.
Delgado has also indicated that he is in contact with those responsible for the Las Raíces migration center, due to the confinement, since it is in the La Esperanza area, and in case it is necessary to evacuate them to the Las Canteras barracks.
NEW EVACUATIONS IN ARAFO
The General Directorate of Emergencies of the Government of the Canary Islands has issued preventive evacuation orders in the central hours of this Thursday in El Pinalete, Galván, Las Vigas and Lo de Los Ramos, Camino de La Granja, Los Eres, Lomo Juan Lian and the access of the Barranco de Añavingo, all these nuclei in the municipality of Arafo (Tenerife).
This decision is added to the confinement of the entire urban area of La Esperanza, in El Rosario, as well as the evacuation of the upper part of the Hondo ravine, Las Rosas, Los Apaches-Camino La Huerta, in the same municipality of El Rosario.
The area of Las Barreras and C/ Preventorio, in El Rosario, has also been evacuated, as well as the area that goes from Vista La Huerta street and Preventorio street to the Escuela Hogar (TF -274), Camino Los Panascos Bajos to calle Juan Antonio Díaz and Las Rosas and Doctor Caldera streets to the General Highway TF -24, in the same municipality. For these people, the municipal pavilion of El Chorrillo-San Isidro has been set up as a shelter.
In La Orotava, the eviction of La Resbala and Pinolere was ordered, as well as the descent of the Teide Restaurant drinking fountain to La Florida and the Quiquirá municipal Pavilion as a meeting point and shelter. Both centers have the capacity to accommodate pets.
All this with the aim of guaranteeing the safety of people and allowing greater operation of the firefighting services. These orders affect more than 7,600 people, according to the census.
Finally, the head of the Civil Protection and Emergency Care Service of the Government of the Canary Islands, Montse Román, has indicated that she is very attentive to ensuring that the basic supplies of all the people who are confined are guaranteed.
He added that the fire “is still active”, with a situation of “a lot of work” because it is “very dynamic”, so that decision-making is carried out “continuously”, so he has not ruled out that there are new preventive evacuations, requesting in In this sense “maximum collaboration” and respect for circulation limitations.
Currently, 16 aerial intervention means are working in the fight against the fire, plus one for coordination, which is mainly focusing the work in part of La Orotava and El Rosario, as well as in the Arafo area.
In addition to 230 intervention troops that will rise to 250 during the afternoon with the arrival of more people from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) who will join the work carried out by Brif, firefighters from different islands, from Miteco and from the PRESA teams from Gran Canaria.
Lastly, the security force has been increased to 100, in such a way that there are 60 civil guards, 21 Canarian police officers, 15 from the National Police plus local police officers, in addition to volunteers.
