It has been a long night, perhaps the longest that the evicted residents of Pinolere, Aguamansa, Pino Alto and La Florida, in La Orotava, have had to live as a result of the worst fire in the last 40 years in Tenerife.
Of the 800 affected, 99 were transferred on Thursday to the Quiquirá municipal pavilion, with space for one hundred beds, where everything necessary was provided to welcome them in the best possible way. And although they agreed that they lacked nothing, it has been impossible for them to fall asleep.
“We couldn’t sleep because of the uncertainty, thinking about the fire,” Desirée Hernández Bello, a resident of Florida Alta, one of the first people evacuated, told DIARIO DE AVISOS yesterday. She is there with all her family, her husband, her two children, her mother and her sister and her family, as well as her two pets, her dog Ágora and her cat Lea.
It was the local police who notified them. They went to her mother’s house, who lives across the street, and the request was repeated two hours later. “There we did get a little more scared,” she confessed.
They took the most essential things. And although you always “think of more”, at that time they focused on children’s clothes and toys.
“Here they have treated us very well, they put a toy library and animals also have their place”, although Ágora is used to being with her a lot and putting her together with more animals “stressed her a bit”.
It reassures him to know that it has been a preventive decision and that there is no property affected because the flames are far from urban centers, as confirmed early yesterday by the Councilor for Security, Narciso Pérez.
Desi has been living in Florida for 35 years. Despite what happened, she does not think about moving. “The hillside is a symbol, although now, when we return, we will be sad to see it black,” she said.
Martín, a resident of Pino Alto, does not separate from Valentina
Martín Pacheco González is from Pino Alto and couldn’t sleep a wink either. He left his house around 6:00 p.m. and “I felt scared,” he said. He lives with her mother but she is at a granddaughter’s house, and she went to the pavilion with a brother and Valentina, a “very good” dog that he took out for a walk early in the morning and hardly noticed. To stop.
The atmosphere that was lived yesterday in the pavilion was calm. Men and women talked among themselves, they went for a walk around to see the hillside, watching the flames, and the pet owners were busy cleaning the kennels and cages.
40 Red Cross volunteers accompany and care for people evicted from their homes
The Councilor for Social Welfare, Belén González, highlighted the behavior of the confined people. “It is not easy for them to come to your house and say that you have to evacuate it, but they understand that it has been preventive because the smoke and ashes were very close.”
The team from the Social Welfare area was joined by professionals from the Official College of Psychologists, who offered their support and explained, especially to the little ones, the situation that was being experienced.
A total of 40 Red Cross volunteers with their regional president and their provincial president, Mayte Pociello and Heliodoro González, respectively, at their head, attended to those affected permanently, always ready for any task, from distributing food to offering them their support. in a difficult moment.
