SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, September 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has distanced himself this Monday from the president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, and has defended that there be more “high capacity” helicopters for extinguishing fires compared to a fixed base of seaplanes .
“Seaplanes would help but given the choice, because these are not infinite resources, we prefer permanent helicopters,” he stated in an interview given to ‘Cope Canarias’ and collected by Europa Press, in which he makes it clear that more fixed aerial means are needed. all year round in the archipelago because the fires are going to be increasingly more virulent.
Clavijo has insisted that technicians prioritize helicopters over seaplanes, especially the ‘kamov’ type, which has a capacity of 4,500 liters and works “like a joystick” and unloads where it is needed.
He has not hidden that the seaplanes were “very useful for cooling” and “fundamental” during the Tenerife forest fire – there were five – but due to the island’s orography, helicopters are more necessary given that although the seaplanes can shoot up to 6,000 liters, when doing it from a high altitude “effectiveness is lost.”
He has even commented that at certain times of the fire not even the helicopters could operate because there was a lot of smoke and wind.
