The Forest fire that was declared last Thursday in Los Campeches and that affects five municipalities (Los Realejos, San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha, Icod de los Vinos and La Orotava), is in a phase of “certain containment” due to the benevolence during the day of the behavior of the wind, but the adverse weather that is expected until tomorrow with high temperatures and low humidity is worrying. The affected area is already estimated at about 2,700 hectares, about 500 more than the morning report, with a perimeter of about 27 kilometers, and about 600 people remain evacuated from their homes.
The Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands, Julio Pérez, highlighted yesterday that the situation of the forest fire is “better than yesterday”, with significant progress, and the firefighting teams and technicians are “relatively hopeful” of the progress that has been made.
Pérez admitted that the progress made “allows us to think” that today there will be some “more significant” progress, although it is not yet possible to eliminate the protection measures that have been taken these days, so the evacuations of almost 600 will continue. people, most of them from different neighborhoods of Los Realejos, the closure of two highways -the one that goes through Icod el Alto and the one that goes up from La Orotava to Boca Tauce- and the prohibition of access to forest areas and recreational areas.
If we take the entire affected surface as a rectangle, the flank of the fire that faces the sea and the most populated areas is “calm” and it is not foreseeable that the flames will flare up in that area; meanwhile, the flank facing the Teide National Park is active, but it arrives “tired” and “doesn’t have” much fuel to burn.
Likewise, on the west flank that faces Icod de los Vinos “we are tied”, because the fire tries to advance, but the firefighting teams manage to contain it and “it has been anchored”. While the front that is most worrying is the one on the slopes of Tigaiga, in Los Realejos, and on which it has been possible to act today and prevent its advance. “We have not managed to draw, but maybe tomorrow (today for the reader) we will.” According to Pérez, this is the area “where we have had the most problems”, since it is “practically a vertical wall” and where “it is more difficult to work on land and also by air”.
The technical chief of the extinction, Pedro Martínez, pointed out that although the situation “has nothing to do with when it overflowed on Saturday”, there are still “active hot spots” throughout the slope, “especially in the lower part”, to which “cannot be accessed” and could be reactivated. “Tigaiga is caught with tweezers, it has given us a lot of trouble” and although “it has been closed with a small line” of defense, it “can be crossed” with a change in the “force of the wind” or the “detachment of material incandescent”.
He acknowledged that “we have had good weather, especially in Tigaiga”, and there have been no “important flames” except for a few, and stressed that this area “is unburned”, so “there may be some occasional fire run” .
Now there will be two days of heat, “we do not know how the fire will behave with the increase in temperatures”, so today will be “a decisive day to try to isolate the fire and prevent it from continuing to evolve”, reiterated Pedro Martínez.
On the other hand, the head of the Emergency Service of the Government of the Canary Islands, Montserrat Román, stated that during the day “new evacuations have not been necessary”, but the people evicted from their homes have not been able to return to them, “a situation that It will be reviewed again each day.
In some cases, some evicted people have been allowed to return to their homes momentarily accompanied by police patrols to collect personal belongings.
The authorities have also highlighted that the care system for domestic animals and livestock “has worked correctly”: in total, almost 200 have been collected, assisted and rehoused in different locations, including 37 dogs, eight cats, 114 goats. , 11 mules and eight horses.
The Head of the Emergency Service pointed out that last night 130 people would continue to work on the extinction work, especially in the Tigaiga area, and today there will be 30 less land troops due to the return to their respective islands of the EIRIF of La Gomera and the members of the Presa de Gran Canaria group, these before the forecast of high temperatures that can reach 40 degrees. Yesterday relief personnel from the UME arrived in Tenerife to collaborate in the extinction of the fire and as reinforcement for other possible incidents.
A stable atmospheric situation is expected for today and tomorrow. Maximums around 28-33 degrees will be reached in the area of the fire and higher at higher altitudes, a relative humidity that will gradually decrease and will be below 30% and a weak wind but with gusts that could reach 30 km. /h between 12:00 and 18:00. That is, an unfavorable weather situation for the evolution of the fire. The situation will change from Wednesday, when a significant drop in temperatures is expected.
