SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The efforts to extinguish the forest fire that affects Tenerife have passed without significant incidents during the night and the operation continues working in different hot spots, especially in the Ravelo sector, in the area of the Las Aguilillas runway.
The ground extinguishing device deployed last night was made up of 52 members of the BRIFOR of the Cabildo of Tenerife, the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and the Tenerife Firefighters Consortium with the support of the security work of the General Corps of the Canarian Police .
Today, Friday, the intervention of seven helicopters is scheduled to support the work of the troops deployed on the ground. Yesterday, the aircraft mobilized for extinction tasks carried out 181 discharges in which they used a total of 227,400 liters of water.
The favorable evolution of the weather conditions yesterday in terms of the absence of wind and the maintenance of temperatures has allowed the extinguishing teams to advance the consolidation work in the Las Calderetas area.
Early on, the operation concentrated its efforts on the hot spots in the Mamio area and has continued working in the sectors where reactivations have been taking place since last October 9, El Sauzal, Santa Úrsula and La Orotava.
The extinguishing tasks of the device, made up of 86 ground troops from the BRIFOR of the Cabildo of Tenerife, BRIF La Palma, EIRIF of the Government of the Canary Islands, UME and Firefighters of the Consortium, as well as agents of the General Corps of the Canarian Police, have been supported today by the helicopters that have carried out water discharges in the three sectors of the northern part of the island.
During the afternoon the extinction tasks, both by the ground and air teams, have focused on attacking the reactivations that have occurred continuously in the Ravelo area and, to a lesser extent in Santa Úrsula, given that it is a sector with very dry fuel.
In recent days, aerial resources have carried out more than 1,800 discharges with nearly 2,300,000 liters of water.
Although the weather yesterday gave a small respite to the extinguishing teams and the general wind forecast is weak at less than 20 km/h and the breezes will dominate, the Plan management insists on not letting down their guard, since temperatures are expected high until Saturday, in the extreme northeast, which may mainly affect the high area of El Sauzal and relative humidity levels do not recover until Sunday at more than 400m altitude.
Likewise, it is recalled that the Canary Islands are on pre-alert due to haze and high temperatures, and the Western Islands and Gran Canaria are on maximum alert due to the risk of forest fire.
