One word stood out this Monday during the presentation of the summer campaign against forest fires in Tenerife: prevention. The Council provided figures of personnel and vehicles, and emphasized that the summer is expected to be “very tough.” However, one of the key factors seems to be in the highlands and continuous work. “The firefighting personnel have a limit,” contextualized the head of the Forest Management Technical Service of the island institution, Pedro Martínez, before focusing on the “significant” abandonment of the countryside. “Whenever a fire breaks out in the mountains, it is finding increasingly easier to advance towards inhabited areas,” he added.
The launch of the Brifor Operational Plan for Prevention and Extinguishing Forest Fires took place next to the El Gaitero tower. Located a few kilometers above Las Lagunetas, it is a communications centre that allows for coordinating resources. It was there where last summer, during the voracious fire that affected the island, the fire turned east and then west. Political representatives and technicians from the island institution, including its president Rosa Dávila, equipped with hiking boots, moved to this point. “As you know, we are working on the highlands plan, which allows us to work with the neighbors in the interface area to keep their surroundings clean and raise much more awareness to mainly prevent, which is the key to fighting fires,” said the nationalist. Rosa Dávila also emphasized that 90% of the outbreaks are extinguished.
Personnel and vehicles. The Council will have about 600 professionals to address any emergencies that may arise during the summer campaign. Thus, the Brifor Operational Plan consists of 286 workers, of which 160 are employees of the island institution and are deployed throughout the year in tasks of management, coordination, prevention, and extinguishing, while 126 are reinforcements to the forest fire operation of the public company Gesplan. In addition to this figure, there are 47 personnel from the Teide National Park and 240 professional firefighters, according to the press release sent after the event. “Furthermore, in situations of major fires, the Council could mobilize the rest of the Natural Environment personnel for support and logistics tasks,” details a statement from the institution.
Dávila highlighted the expansion of the Brifor Operational Plan “with a five-month campaign lasting until November 3, as well as the addition of two helicopters, ‘one of them throughout the year and the other during the most dangerous months,’ and ‘nine new forest fire engines that will help improve emergency management.’ She added that ‘experience shows that working in the interface area required much more versatile vehicles where the streets are very narrow’.
The 286 members of the Brifor Operational Plan will have as resources two Brifor helicopters (with a capacity of 1,000 litres) based at Tenerife South Airport. This year, as a novelty, this service is available throughout the year. “The first of them has been operational from January 1 to December 31, while the second will be in service from April 23 to November 18,” detailed the Council, before specifying that during the peak fire risk period, both helicopters are available for extinguishing.
Agreement with Brifor. “We are trying to improve the technical provisions of the operation in terms of both vehicles and personnel,” stated the Minister of Natural Environment, Sustainability, and Safety and Emergencies, Blanca Pérez, who then referred to the “very persistent” drought and the need for additional personnel. “An agreement with the union had to be reached because, when one has to be alert and reachable, it has to be paid for, and I think it is right to do so, among other things because this human team is probably the best in the Canary Islands,” she said referring to Brifor. “The effort they make exceeds their salary, and we must thank them as well as the firefighters for the effort they made last year, and for the willingness to do so this year,” stated the person in charge of the insular area of the Environment.
Two agreements. The Council has two agreements with the Official College of Psychology of Santa Cruz de Tenerife linked to major emergencies, as indicated by the insular institution in its press release. The first one is aimed at training professionals from the Fire Consortium and the Brifor Operational command staff on basic first aid knowledge in providing psychological assistance to people affected by an emergency situation. “The course includes theoretical presentations on its content with the support of audiovisual, bibliographic, and written material, as well as the presentation and resolution of specific hypothetical situations or standard cases to facilitate the understanding of each of the topics taught,” they detailed.
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On the other hand, the second one is aimed at victims and aims to provide psychological assistance on-site to individuals directly affected by extraordinary emergency situations within the civilian population or to secondary victims, referring to people close to the primary ones. Additionally, this assistance service also includes professionals from the Security and Emergency department of the Tenerife Council.
Investigation of the 2023 fire continues in court
The investigation opened last summer is still ongoing in court. This was indicated by the head of the Brifor Operation of the Tenerife Council, José María Sánchez Linaje. “The investigation is still open, but it is in court; all I can specify is that it was an intentionally caused fire, but I cannot say more,” expressed the technician from the insular institution. As a reminder, in the days following the fire declaration, it was known that the Civil Guard had opened several lines of investigation to locate the individuals who may have started that fire, extending to numerous municipalities. A team from the Judicial Police of this body was working on the hypothesis that the flames were deliberately set. The main clues were two: that the fire started with several sources in an area near the Chivisaya viewpoint, in the highlands of Arafo, where other small fires had also occurred, the most significant being on July 15, 2023. Indeed, last summer, and just under a month before the major fire of the summer campaign occurred, the National Police arrested the alleged perpetrator of another fire recorded in the upper part of Los Realejos. | D.M./D.R.
