SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, has asked the mayor of Los Realejos, Adolfo González, to reinforce citizen security in the area of Los Campeches where this Thursday a fire has broken out due to the suspicion that it may have been provoked given the high frequency of near misses in this area of the island.
“We cannot know at this time what the origin of the fire is, but it would not surprise us if it could be intentional”, he commented in a meeting with the media in which he has asked to raise the “alert” and ask for citizen collaboration to avoid that these days of high temperatures “there is no unscrupulous person and it could cause a very serious problem”.
The fire affects a very sparsely populated area of low scrub and brambles and land troops from the forestry brigades -the UME have also been mobilized- and up to three helicopters with discharges of water from the air.
Likewise, the Government of the Canary Islands has been requested to activate another two helicopters, one of them Kamov type, and the Cabildo de La Gomera the Air Tractor with retardant liquid.
The objective of this deployment is that the fire “does not get out of hand” as it did in 2007, given that it is an area with a lot of weeds that can fuel the flames, said the president of Tenerife.
“We are seeing how it is moving and it could be stopped, but it is as important to be in the front as not to leave embers behind, that is the job,” he commented, highlighting that it favors that there is little wind and temperatures, although they are high, “They are not fired.”
Martín has shown his desire that the fire can be contained in the next few hours and valued that there are very few houses in the area, so the access of people who are not related to the security device will be restricted.
He has also said that the safety of the personnel is “essential” and therefore they must study how to access the area because “there are very narrow agricultural tracks and it is not easy to get there.”
