Rosa Dávila, president of the Cabildo, pointed out yesterday to the central government’s commitment to declare catastrophic zone the 14,700 hectares of the fire that began on August 15 in Arafo and reached Candelaria, Güímar, Fasnia, El Rosario, Tacoronte, El Sauzal, La Matanza, La Victoria, Santa Úrsula, La Orotava and Los Realejos.
The intention to approve this declaration of a catastrophic area – in essence, an area seriously affected by a civil protection emergency – had already been advanced in Arafo on the 21st by the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. Specifically, he indicated during his visit to the Island that the Council of Ministers was going to approve it once the fire was controlled. “The Government of Spain – Sánchez stressed then – is going to get involved in the work of reconstruction, recovery and stabilization of the daily lives of the affected citizens.”
Precisely, yesterday another representative of the acting central Executive was on the Island, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who when evaluating the damage from the forest fire highlighted the work carried out by the Military Emergency Unit (UME), as well as that of the personnel assigned to other public administrations, such as the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Tenerife.
Rosa Dávila explained, together with the counselors of the Presidency, José Miguel Ruano, and of the Primary Sector and Animal Welfare, Valentín González, that the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands has requested the Cabildo and the city councils of the 12 municipalities affected by the catastrophe to first estimate of damage caused by flames.
In this calculation, the Cabildo handles the figure of 80.4 million euros, which, its representatives pointed out, is provisional and only refers to infrastructure dependent on the insular Corporation, to the effects that the regeneration of the damaged mountain will entail, as well as to the Teide National Park. To obtain a more precise number, we will therefore have to wait for the largest fire that Spain has suffered during the summer, whose severity is currently level 1 (the Cabildo directs the extinction operation) and is stabilized, reaches be controlled.
But what does the declaration of an area seriously affected by a civil protection emergency represent? Very broadly, it involves the assumption by the central government of extraordinary measures that seek to repair material and personal damage caused as a result of a large-scale emergency. What is ultimately sought is that the affected population can return as soon as possible to living their lives, as far as possible, in the way they did before the catastrophe.
