SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 24 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A total of 585 people have been evicted as a precautionary measure before the development of the different fronts of the forest fire that was declared on the island of Tenerife last Thursday, which is still active and already affects five municipalities: La Orotava, Los Realejos , San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha and Icod de los Vinos.
Specifically, during the day today, some 50 homes have been evicted in the Las Llanadas area, from the Chanajiga recreational area to the upper area, not the nucleus, and the Barranco de Palo Alto, as well as seven other homes in the area of La Florida, in the municipality of Los Realejos.
Subsequently, due to the anticipation of the advance of the forest fire in the proximity of the limit zone of the Tigaiga hillside and due to the technical maneuvers to control the fire, 585 people were evacuated from Las Arenitas, Cruz del Castaño and the Chanajiga area. , also in Los Realejos, and Orégano Street, in La Orotava. The provisional meeting point for the relocation of the affected people has been established at the Las Llanadas Sports Center.
Most of those affected have been rehoused in the homes of friends and hotels and two sports centers with enough beds for affected people have also been set up. No damage to homes has been reported so far.
This has been reported by the president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, who has appeared at a press conference to report on the evolution of the fire together with the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Julio Pérez; the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín; the head of the Civil Protection service, Montserrat Román, and the Brifor spokesperson, Pedro Martínez.
Ángel Víctor Torres has detailed that the area affected is 2,156 hectares, with a perimeter of 20 kilometers, so the progress of the fire has been less than expected because the containment and extinction works have worked and also due to weather conditions somewhat more advantageous, with more humidity and wind with low average speed. In this regard, he indicated that aerial means have made multiple downloads; the KAMOV helicopter alone has discharged 46 times today.
However, the president insisted that more than a thousand people had to be evacuated because there was a risk that the fire would spread to scattered population centers, especially in the municipality of La Orotava, although there are no homes affected. .
The president also indicated that this Saturday he spoke in person with Minister Teresa Ribera to increase the State’s means of extinction in the fire and tonight a second seaplane has already arrived that will operate, together with the one that carried out extinction tasks today, from the 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning. To this has been added the increase of 40 UME troops originating in Seville.
Ángel Víctor Torres emphasized that this Sunday will be fundamental and this Saturday night too, so that, provided the weather helps, to be able to control the fire, especially given the weather forecasts that are scheduled for the next few days, which are worse.
Torres conveyed to the population the need to be very careful in this emergency and asked the Canary Islands to comply with the established rules and civic behavior in these difficult times.
For his part, the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, highlighted the coordination effort that is being carried out between the administrations and the operation that carries out the evacuations, which has allowed the orderly transfer of all the people who have had to leave their homes for housing solutions
The head of the Civil Protection service, Montserrat Román, explained that 110 ground troops will work overnight, focusing on two flanks. On the one hand, action will be taken in the area that leads to populated areas of the Valley in which the protection of homes in San Juan de La Rambla and La Guancha will be reinforced with urban firefighters against a possible advance of the fire due to the winds and, on the other hand, side, in the area populated by forest mass that could cause an increase in the fire in that area.
The extinction tasks carried out during the day have been complicated, according to Pedro Martínez Costa, from the Cabildo de Tenerife, especially on the slope of Tigaiga due to the orography, while in the western part of Icod de los Vinos the works have worked better. As for the upper part that goes towards the El Teide National Park, the fire had not advanced as it found an area with little vegetation.
