There are already 12,813 hectares affected in a perimeter of 90 km
There are still no houses burned by the flames
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Aug. 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The work of the extinguishing teams against the forest fire that began on August 15 in Mount Arafo, on the island of Tenerife, will focus during this night on consolidating the northern zone in order to focus on the morning of this Monday in the Mal Abrigo area and Cho Marcial peak, which is the area of greatest concern.
This was revealed this Sunday during the press conference at 9:30 p.m. to update the information on the evolution of the fire, where it was revealed that for the moment there is still no record that any house has burned.
For its part, the fire, which remains uncontrolled although there are many stabilized areas in the south, has reached 12,812 hectares affected in a perimeter covering 90 kilometers along eleven municipalities and Los Realejos added.
As for the evicted residents, there are some 12,000 people after the evacuations that have taken place this weekend, the last of which was that of the workers of the Parador Nacional del Teide, although this Sunday neighbors from different areas were able to return to their homes de Candelaria and Arafo, although it is expected that this Monday the return to their homes of more neighbors will be reassessed.
In this sense, a total of 1,005 people slept in the centers set up to manage this emergency on the night of Saturday to Sunday, and in the course of managing this crisis, 53 dependent people who were displaced to social and health centers on the island have been cared for. .
“VERY GOOD JOB” DURING THE DAY
The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, commented that this Sunday it was possible to do a “very good” job consolidating the perimeter and keeping the entire southern area of the fire cold after a “very hard” night that nevertheless evolved favorably. “The objective was to start in the morning with the Mal Abrigo area and the Cho Marcial peak, which was one of the areas that I was taking away and that could escape us to the south,” he said.
“The truth,” he continued, “is that despite the fact that in the afternoon many resources were put into that environment to try to direct the fire and prevent it from crossing our path, because there was a moment of great intensity of the fire that forced the removal of the effective. But the weather has been favorable for us, for the first time in this fire, and seems to indicate that the fire will not advance much during the night.”
Clavijo hoped that the night could serve to contain the fire and be able to give a “push” during this Monday because it seems that the winds will be 10/15 km/h, which will help the extinction work.
“If we manage to consolidate the entire northern part during the night and contain it there well, the idea is to land forcefully in the area of Mal Abrigo and Cho Marcial peak with all the means as the morning starts,” he asserted.
THE AGUAMANSA CANAL IS ALREADY OPERATING
The president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, explained that the situation continues to be complicated, although more favorable situations are beginning to emerge.
He has commented that the Aguamansa Canal is already operational after this morning members of the Fire Consortium accompanied the technicians to guarantee that they could carry out their work safely.
This hydraulic infrastructure supplies the municipalities from Los Realejos to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and supplies, in turn, the pipelines of the Victoria Santa Cruz Canal, Dornajos-Los Baldíos pipeline, Unión Victoria-La Matanza Canal.
For its part, an attempt was made to access the channel on Friday, but the fire that affected the area prevented repair work from being carried out. As a provisional measure, flows were diverted from a point prior to the rupture to the North Canal –through the so-called Bajante de la Morra–, to be distributed among the affected municipalities and the population was asked to consume responsibly of the water.
