The plenary session of the Council of Tenerife has unanimously approved an institutional agreement in which it requests to Canary Islands a permanent base of high-capacity air resources for the fight against fires forestry.
The text agreed upon by all the groups with representation in the island corporation, PSOE, CC, PP and Mixed (Vox)also urges Government of the Canary Islands to ask the one from Spain for a modification of the intervention protocol of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) so that the councils They can request it in level 1 fires.
Likewise, the regional administration is called upon to implement and improve the resources of the forest fire intervention and reinforcement teams (EIRIF), creating a base in Tenerife.
and is ordered to initiate “a dialogue” between institutions, professional sectors, agricultural and livestock organizations and research organizations on a territorial model for Tenerifein which the uses and exploitation in rural areas, intensive livestock farming, grazing and the creation of strategic areas “are fundamental in the preservation of natural heritage”.
Also for “promote production models that contribute to the strengthening and regeneration of biodiversity -including agricultural biodiversity- and the adaptation of ecosystems, agrosystems and the abandonment of agricultural land to climate change scenarios”.
The approved institutional declaration includes the commitment of the Cabildo de Tenerife to establish “the necessary aid” for the primary sectorwith priority for beekeeping and for damage to livestock and service sector entities that carry out their activity in the affected natural environment.
It also states that, once the losses in the agricultural field have been valued, the ways of recovering damaged soils will be articulated from the Cabildo and farmers will be compensated for possible losses, at the same time that it will approve and endow financially, with the character of urgently, a reforestation plan for the affected areas.
The president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Rosa Davila (CC), has thanked the work of the fire-fighting forces and the volunteers to deal with “a monster that had a life of its own and that was rampaging down the northern slopes, threatening homes and people’s lives.”
has also had words of recognition for the collaboration and predisposition shown by the mayors and mayors from the municipalities affected, by the opposition groups, as well as from the governments of the Canary Islands and Spain, which “spare no effort”.
Dávila has emphasized that “from the first moment” they noticed that this fire “was not similar to others”and added that climate change and “the relationship we have with the mountains” mean that “we have to draw lessons” such as the importance of coordination and prevention.
Regarding the second, he has announced that he has given instructions to increase the number of forest brigades and give stability to forest firefighters so that, in coordination with urban firefighters, they make “a greater and better effort to be able to have better prevention.”
The counselor of Natural Environment, Sustainability, Safety and Emergencies, Blanca Pérez (CC), has stressed other priorities of the Cabildo, such as strengthening the Civil Protection system, involving citizens in prevention in interface areas and working with municipalities on their ordinances.
The vice president of the Cabildo and PP spokesperson, Lope Afonsohas stressed that the plenary agreement on Monday is “praiseworthy”, since this ability to reach “big agreements in the most complex moments” summarizes “a factor that is often lacking in island politics: an exercise of Tenerife, to raise our sights, to put the political height in another position”.
Despite the fact that the institutional agreement has gone ahead unanimously, The previous debate has not been exempt from criticism from the former president of the Cabildo and spokesman for the Socialist group, Pedro Martin, who has spoken of “lack of coordination” with some mayors, as well as when it comes to distributing food to the troops against the fire or the transfer of animals.
Martin He has missed a greater “precision or caution” with the evacuations, since “there were talks of 26,000 evacuees” when in the end there were about 13,000and has questioned the participation as advisor of Federido Grilloemergency coordinator of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria.
In this regard, Rosa Dávila has pointed out that the directors of the emergency team when the fire was at level 2, being the responsibility of the Government of the Canary Islandsconsidered Grillo’s advice and that of other people convenient.
But What Pedro Martín has been most critical of has been President Rosa Dávila’s request for a seaplane base for the Canary Islands.one day before the president of the Canary Islands and leader of CC, Fernando Clavijo“disauthorized” her.
Martín has asked Dávila if he has any technical report that confirms that “it is seaplanes that we need” or if, on the contrary, they are Kamov-type helicopters, with greater capacity than those available to the Cabildo.
The president of the Cabildo has denied that any mayor of the affected municipalities may have felt “helpless” in the worst part of the fire, and the Minister of Natural Environment, Sustainability, Security and Emergencies has attributed the discontent mentioned by Martín to some councilors. socialists from southern municipalities.
Blanca Pérez has also criticized that the PSOE spokesperson echoes “hoaxes” about feeding the extinction services.
Regarding the debate on a permanent base in the Canary Islands for aerial means, Rosa Dávila has emphasized that due to the war in Ukraine the availability of high-capacity helicopters is “quite reduced” and of the ten Kamov types that were in Spain for firefighting, “there are three” available.
He recalled that since last February the Ministry of Defense has been working on allocating other high-capacity helicopters to intervene in fires but “as of today they are not available.”
Therefore, the position of the Cabildo of Tenerife is to request a seaplane base “as long as” there is not a sufficient fleet of this type of helicopters in Spain that would better adapt to the orography of the islands.
Rosa Dávila has elaborated that if “the excuse” of the Government of Spain in 2020 to reject this permanent base, which would leave other places in Spain “unattended”, it must be taken into account that “it takes the same time” to make the journey between the peninsula and the Canary Islands in both directions.
During the debate, Vox counselor Ana Salazar criticized the “unheard of” fact that in the last term the Tenerife Council “resigned” from a fire prevention and early detection project financed with European funds that it had to return, and who, if it had been up and running, has believed that the consequences of this summer’s fire would have been minor.
Salazar has also reproached the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, for his “improvisations” when speaking about the intention of the fire, to which the Civil Guard He asked him for “prudence and caution”, and when he accused several residents of Las Lagunetas of jumping the restriction zone and barricading themselves in their home.
