SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 27. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The forest fire declared a week ago in the north of Tenerife and which affects five municipalities: La Orotava, Los Realejos, San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha and Icod de los Vinos, has gone from level 2 to 1, so The Cabildo de Tenerife once again assumes control of the emergency, once the fire has lost its danger and continues to stabilize.
This decision was made at the Infoca coordination meeting, which was attended by the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant; the president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres; the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Julio Pérez; the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, among others.
At the press conference after the Infoca coordination meeting, the president of the Canary Islands reported that the fire is not yet controlled, among other reasons, because the special orography of the area means that there are still some hot spots, so it will be in the next few days when it is decided that the fire enters the control phase.
Ángel Víctor Torres also reported that all the residents who had been evicted from their homes have already been able to return to them, after today the evacuation of the Camino del Madroño area, in Los Realejos, which affected a total of 38 people.
Torres acknowledged that it has been a “very hard” week for the extinguishing media, whose work has allowed both the perimeter of the fire, around 27 kilometers, and the area affected, some 2,700 hectares, to remain the same. He added that now it is up to the security forces and bodies to determine if it has finally been an arson attack and he hoped that it would be possible to discover “who has committed this outrage against the environment and the safety of people, animals, the island and of common sense.”
The president wanted to recall that in these three years there have been seven fires in the Canary Islands that have passed to emergency level 2, so, given the proximity of the month of August, one of the most dangerous in terms of the risk of forest fires, I ask the entire Canarian society to be responsible and to respect the rules.
For her part, the technical director of the Infoca Plan and deputy director of Civil Protection, Marta Moreno, reported that today the two roads that were still closed as a result of the fire have been reopened: the TF-21 and the TF-344. She, in turn, announced that the current situation of the fire allows the withdrawal of air and land resources of the State and the Government of the Canary Islands and the extinction tasks will be assumed by the Cabildo.
Pedro Martínez, responsible for the firefighting teams, pointed out that a small active section remains, which cannot be accessed by land and in which the aerial means have been acting, and in the coming days the appearance of new hot spots where downloads will continue to be made with the two helicopters of the Cabildo and, if necessary, of the Government of the Canary Islands.
Regarding the control of the fire, he pointed out that they are only waiting for the weather conditions to improve and the area to cool down more. In any case, he warned that in the coming months it will be common for small columns of smoke to be seen both inside the pine forest and in Monteverde, on the Tigaiga mountain, since there may be subsoil fires or thick items that have not cooled down sufficiently.
The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, announced that as of tomorrow, Thursday, the accesses to the mountain will be reopened in most of the island, since limitations will be maintained in the area of the fire and in the closest spaces. . In this sense, the affected municipalities will be informed so that they can define which spaces can be accessed.
The Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, stressed that it is a “reason for joy” that the fire has been able to go to level 1 and recognized that all this is possible thanks to human capital and the material means available to deal with to an emergency of these characteristics. She also highlighted the fact that no human loss had been regretted, as well as the use of different scientific instruments during the fire to generate the necessary knowledge to deal with this type of emergency.
