The Governing Council of Council has approved reinforce vigilance and prevention against fires in natural spaces of the Island through the incorporation of 140 personnel during the next four years. It is entrusted to the public company Gesplan, with an investment of 14.7 million euros, will cover the objective of improving and reinforcing the security devices with the support works for the fight against fire in the mountains of Tenerife until the year 2025.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martin, assesses: “Since the arrival of this government group, we have set ourselves the continuous improvement of forest fire prevention systems as an objective.” He explains that “among other things, we have extended the months of development of the annual campaign or established 24 hours of operation of the Cecopin room.”
The president adds: “140 people will be hired in an initiative that will be consolidated over the next four years with the aim of increasing security in our natural spaces.” These 140 people will reinforce the 125 currently working in the forestry brigades.
Three key services.
The Island Government Council has approved, specifically, the assignment to the company Gestión y Planning Territorial y Medioambiental SA (Gesplan) to manage the Coordination Center of the Insular Operations (Cecopin), to reinforce the surveillance and extinction of fires forestry (Brifor), as well as preventive silvicultural work for the next four years. The Minister of Management of the Natural Environment and Security, Isabel García, highlights “the experience of the public company and the proven efficiency in its actions in the forestry areas of the Island. We therefore place our trust in the guarantee of good service.”
“The measure will increase security in our mountains for the next four years”
Cecopin.
The Cecopin, which will be active throughout the year, will have at the coordination center located in the Santiago Martín Pavilion (La Hamburguesa), in the municipality of La Laguna, with the presence for fourteen hours, in morning and afternoon shifts, of two managers. There will be ten hours on the night shift with another manager. In addition, a location service can be activated for reinforcement in case of emergencies. Among the functions that are developed in this coordination room, we can point out the application necessary to develop incident management and fleet monitoring, as well as the recording of telephone or radio conversations; the allocation of means of alarm; the additions and withdrawals of media on the ground; the notification of news and the GPS positioning of the assigned troops.
Watchtowers.
The order also includes, in the surveillance section, a Fire Tower service in Picachos (with an emergency vehicle), an installation located in the municipality of Arico, in the South, and another in the similar infrastructure located in Gaitero, within from the municipality of La Victoria de Acentejo (North Zone). The Island has a network of watchtowers, although not all of them are operational. Regarding the extinction of forest fires, there will be four Fire Post services made up of two brigades of eight personnel each during the daytime and one of four people at night; in both cases, for four months. In addition to a so-called Fire Substation composed of a four-man brigade during daytime hours, as well as two at night, also for four months a year.
Preventive work.
Finally, this commission also includes the carrying out of preventive work, which will be carried out by 14 teams. Each of them will be made up of five troops. It will be made up of a group leader, a chainsaw specialist and three brushcutter specialists. This service will be carried out like the others for four months a year. Regarding the experience in this type of orders, the Gesplan company develops, among other works, the service of the forest fire prevention and extinction teams in the Caldera de Taburiente National Park, in La Palma, since 2012 and from the Forest Fire Intervention and Reinforcement Teams (EIRIF) of the Government of the Canary Islands since 2017.
