SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 14. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo de La Gomera has presented this Tuesday the fire prevention and extinction campaign that this year has a contingent made up of 200 troops, which include those arranged by the Island Institution, in addition to those from the Garajonay National Park and the EIRIF .
This was explained by the president, Casimiro Curbelo, who participated in the press conference, together with the Minister for the Environment, Héctor Cabrera; technical managers and representatives of the groups included in the preventive plan.
As detailed by Curbelo, on this occasion more than 1.4 million euros are allocated to the provision of human and material resources for prevention and extinction, which this year has, for the first time, the surveillance of three drones arranged by the Cabildo and that they will carry out control tasks in the island territory.
These devices will be handled by personnel from the Environment Unit who have been trained for their use during this time. “We are facing a summer that is expected to have longer episodes of heat and that, added to the lack of precipitation, makes us intensify preventive and surveillance measures to avoid fires,” he said.
In this sense, he called for responsibility and prevention, for which he recalled the suitability of running security strips around homes and the removal of vegetable fuel in these areas. “It is a task that corresponds to each one of us, and that complements what we have done from the public side on roadsides and protected natural spaces,” he pointed out.
Thus, he reported the ban on making fires in recreational areas from this Tuesday, coinciding with the start of the campaign. This measure will be extended, at least, until October 31, and may be extended if conditions so determine.
TWO AIR MEDIA AND FIFTEEN VEHICLES.
The operation has two aerial means: a multifunctional helicopter provided by the Government of the Canary Islands and based in the military barracks in San Sebastián de La Gomera, which is joined by the cargo plane on the ground that will be located at the airport from The end of this month. Likewise, there are fifteen vehicles with the capacity to transport up to 50,000 liters of water.
In the case of drones, the technician, Igor Pasaban, explained that the acquisition of the three devices facilitates the detection of hot spots with the built-in thermal cameras, in addition to the tasks of control and observation of the state of the vegetation.
During the presentation, the work carried out each year by the groups of volunteers that participate in the prevention plan was valued. In this sense, the Minister for the Environment, Héctor Cabrera, pointed out the involvement of the Volunteer Firefighters of Valle Gran Rey and the Volunteer Firefighters of La Gomera, together with the services that carry out Civil Protection and Anaga Emergency Assistance. “They are committed and proving their worth, as they play a critical role every time we ask for their cooperation,” he said.
The development of the presentation act also had the participation of members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), EIRIF, personnel from the Environment Unit, Garajonay and Tragsa National Park.
