Tenerife It has been suffering for two months from the consequences of a fire that has not been extinguished. On August 15, this fire began and spread over an area greater than 14,000 hectares in a perimeter of 90 kilometerss, with 12 municipalities affected. Almost a month later, was considered “technically controlled”However, in the middle of the heat wave, a series of reactivations were generated that forced this fire to be raised to emergency level two.
Last week, preventive evacuations were carried out for around 3,200 people and a house was burned in the upper area of the municipality of Santa Úrsula. The president of the Island Council, Rosa Dávila, explained that the family that the fire has left homeless was rehoused and had its basic needs covered, including transportation of the minor to the IES. In addition, she added that, hand in hand with the Government of the Canary Islands, they are working to ensure that Soon this family will have a home for rent in the municipality.
The change in meteorological conditions expected for Monday night makes it necessary to maintain the current deployment of resources and forces the fire to maintain level 2 severity, given the possibility of reactivations due to gusts of wind. This was explained by the management of the Special Protection Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Response to Forest Fires of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands (INFOCA) meeting this Sunday morning.
After Saturday night was quiet, Now we are especially concerned about the critical moment of greatest danger that could occur At the end of the heat episode and the weather changes, with erratic gusty winds typical of this transit.
This Sunday 112 ground troops supported by 7 helicopters have intervened in extinguishing tasks, as well as personnel from the Civil Guard and the General Corps of the Canarian Police who are in charge of reinforcing security around the perimeter of the fire, and coordination personnel from CECOPIN, from the General Directorate of Emergencies and CECOES 1-1-2.
The extinguishing teams will be distributed in the areas of Carril del Polvo, Aguilillas, Cruz del Dornajo, Cueva Labrada, Fuentefría.
A fire underground
The teams fighting against these reproductions explained last week that these days they are facing a “underground” fire, which is aggravated by high temperatures, low humidity and prevailing wind. These are precisely the meteorological and environmental conditions that have been occurring in the archipelago since the beginning of October.
There are three main ways in which fire can advance and progress.; the crown fire, which advances between trees close to each other; surface fire, which is spread by fuel above ground, such as pine needles, leaf litter, grasses, bushes or fallen wood; and Soil and subsoil fire, the most difficult to detect, since it burns the roots and other organic matter.
Due to the low amount of oxygen, it hardly causes flames, which further complicates extinguishing efforts. To produce combustion, it needs oxygen and it is found underground because the subsoil is not a completely airtight surface.
A surface fire can find a stump, that is, a door, through which it can spread underground through the roots of trees. Forestry technicians consulted by this newspaper, They assure that this type of fire is the most difficult to predict, since in an environment where they are trying to extinguish the flamesit is difficult to detect the areas where it is occurring.
The weather for the next few hours
In the area of the fire, a significant drop in temperatures is expected in the next two days, a drop that in this period may be between 4º and 5ºC in the maximum temperatures, although the minimum temperatures will decrease to a lesser extent. Cloudy skies are expected due to the presence of high cloudiness both today and tomorrow, with intervals of medium clouds in the second half of Sunday and the first half of Monday, although without precipitation.
The Emergency Plan Directorate also insists that the population must respect the access restrictions to the fire area to facilitate the transit of emergency vehicles and prevent new reactivations from occurring, as well as respect the restrictions regarding traffic on trails and the prohibition of lighting any type of fire outside for recreational purposes.
