SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Aug. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, Manuel Miranda, responsible for Emergencies, announced this Monday that the evolution of the fire in Tenerife allows the risk situation to be upgraded to Level 1 Emergency, as established in the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Care for Forest Fires in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands (INFOCA).
This decision is made at the proposal of the technical director of the Infoca Plan, after consultations and deliberations by the advisory committee and extinction management.
From this moment, the Cabildo de Tenerife assumes the direction of the emergency, the intervention of resources and communication to the population.
The fire continues in the stabilized phase since August 24, which means that it is evolving within the established control lines, according to forecasts, and that the extinction efforts are directed towards its control, the Government details in a note.
Faced with this favorable situation, the direction of the plan has indicated that in recent days the withdrawal of State land and air resources has begun, among them, the seaplanes of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco), the troops of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), as well as the BRIFOR forestry brigades.
This fire started at 11:36 p.m. on Tuesday in the vicinity of the TF-523 highway, between the municipalities of Arafo and Candelaria, and during the early morning, due to its size, the Cabildo requested the passage to level 2 of severity in application of INFOCA assuming the direction of the emergency the Government of the Canary Islands.
The affected area amounts to 14,751 hectares distributed in twelve municipalities (La Orotava, Candelaria, Arafo, Santa Úrsula, Los Realejos, Güímar, La Victoria, El Rosario, El Sauzal, Fasnia, Tacoronte and La Matanza) and a perimeter of 90 kilometers.
In the extinction operation, 22 aircraft have participated, so far, a total of 7,277 discharges in which 13,103,700 liters of water have been used, and more than 600 ground troops including intervention, security, logistics and volunteer teams. .
In total, more than 13,000 people were evacuated throughout the days that the most intense fight against the fire lasted, of which 1,300 made use of the 10 shelters set up by the municipalities and 473 animals were sheltered in different centers.
