SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, January 12. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The fire at the composting plant located in Parque La Reina, in the municipality of Arona, affects three and a half hectares of surface and some 100,000 tons of compost, wood and plant material and the forecast is that the extinguishing work will last for several days.
This was explained to the media this Friday by Florencio López, Tenerife Firefighters officer, who detailed the characteristics of the operation together with the president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, and the mayor of Arona, Fátima Lemes.
López has commented that the work of the device focuses on acting on the largest piles of material with machinery and water lines in order to quell the flames while the smaller piles will be consumed directly by the fire.
He has also said that extinguishing is being reinforced in front of the highway and that the smoke given off by the fire, which is very striking, “is not toxic” as it comes from plant material and dissipates quickly so it does not negatively affect to the population.
Since this Thursday afternoon, two shelters with about 180 animals that are close to the area were evacuated and seven people were treated by the Canarian Emergency Service (SUC), of which two of them were hospitalized, a man and a fire officer with an eye injury.
Dávila has indicated that from the first moment all the resources of the Cabildo have been made available to the Arona City Council and after the “control and confinement” work on Thursday they will now proceed with an “attack strategy to try to resolve the situation.”
During this day, 20 members of the Tenerife Fire Department intervened, as well as personnel from the Cabildo’s Forestry Brigades, Local Police and Civil Protection, and the Cabildo’s Brifor helicopter and that of the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) of the Government of Canary Islands.
For her part, Fátima Lemes thanked the Council for its collaboration and pointed out that “the council’s “priority” was that “no personal injury would occur and that the composting plant be delimited so that there was no more risk.”
“We have great professionals in the extinguishing work who have worked and will continue to do so so that this remains a striking fire. We want to send a message of tranquility to the population, thank them for their collaboration and make a request that they follow the instructions of the authorities” , has added.
