Some 40 homes in San Juan de La Rambla have lost their water supply as the Los Cuchillos reservoir was affected
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The fire in the north of Tenerife that originated this Thursday already affects three municipalities – Los Realejos, San Juan de la Rambla and La Guancha -, has burned more than 500 hectares and has a perimeter of about 11 kilometers.
The head of the Civil Protection and Emergency Attention Service of the Government of the Canary Islands, Monserrat Román, commented at a press conference that the fire is moving west, towards the recreational and camping areas evicted this Thursday, with the advantage of that, according to the information provided by the drones of the Cabildo, the flames are going towards the summit.
For now, no more evacuations are expected than the 60 people who left the camping areas and the 31 evicted in the upper area of San Juan de la Rambla as a precaution, even though a group of people have decided to self-evacuate and go to relatives’ houses. .
An operation of 250 people is working in the area, of which 150 act on the ground against fire — there has been a reinforcement of 20 more — with the support of ten aerial means, with four helicopters, two from the Cabildo and two from the Government, discharging water from early in the morning.
Román has commented that the wind does not worry much because it is below 30 kilometers per hour, but until Friday night a drop in temperature and an increase in relative humidity are not expected.
The fire has two conflictive points, the right flank of the head, where widenings are being burned to try to control it, and the San Juan ravine, because the bottom of the riverbed is burning and land resources cannot access it, and only You can attack from the air.
In addition, the wind is expected to rekindle the head of the fire to the west.
The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has highlighted the “magnificent work” carried out by the operation during the night, although he has recognized that the fire is not yet controlled, something that is expected to be achieved throughout the night due to the improvement of weather conditions.
The fire basically affects the public forest of Monteverde and Pinar, although it has also reached some private farms, although there are no homes or tool rooms affected and no animals have had to be evacuated.
THE OBJECTIVE IS TO CONTROL IT TONIGHT
Torres has warned that the Canary Islands are on risk alert due to the risk of forest fires and even if they go down to pre-alert these days, we must remain vigilant given that temperatures rise again on Sunday.
However, he said that “the logical thing is that you can start to control tonight if the temperature and the wind do not worsen and the humidity rises, it is good to have it controlled when the high temperatures arrive on Sunday.”
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, has reported that some 40 homes in San Juan de la Rambla have lost their water supply because the fire has affected the channel that supplies the Los Cuchillos reservoir, so between the City Council and the Council Insular de Aguas is looking for an emergency solution to replace it.
He has also highlighted the use of drones for the first time in the device since they have been “a lot of help” for ground troops because they locate “hot spots” and provide a lot of information regarding progress.
