SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, May 24. (EUROPE PRESS) –
A total of 327 people are already working in the operation against forest fires deployed by the Cabildo de Tenerife with the aim of preventing fires from starting in the protected areas of the island.
The insular president, Pedro Martín, recalled that the Cabildo workers are deployed throughout the year with management, prevention, control and extinction tasks. To them are added, since last April, the 122 reinforcement workers to the operation, who will be deployed until mid-December, as well as the 42 troops from the Teide National Park. “Preventive treatments are being developed and acting on forest fuel,” explained Martín.
With regard to land operations, this year six new forest fire trucks with a capacity of between 3,000 and 4,500 liters and five light fire trucks with a capacity of 500 liters have been incorporated.
In this way, this year’s land operation will be made up of three 9,000-litre pumper trucks, 14 forestry pumpers with a capacity of between 3,500 and 5,000 litres, two 1,800-litre medium-sized pumpers, 30 500-litre light pumpers, one vehicle Advanced Command Post and 29 all-terrain transport vehicles.
At the aerial level, there are two helicopters based at the Tenerife Sur Airport and three drones with a thermographic and visual camera to take images and videos.
The Minister of Natural Environment and Security Management, Isabel García, assured that all these resources “are essential for the response to a fire to be as fast as possible, but we must also call for responsibility to all the people who live in this island to avoid forest fires”.
In this sense, he announced that to improve the capabilities of the operation “the usual training will be carried out throughout the entire campaign, where extinguishing techniques in large fires and actions in interface fires will be addressed, two areas of especially significant intervention in Tenerife”.
MEANS OF SUPPORT
In addition to the Island Corporation’s own resources, we must add the availability, during the risk period, of others from the Government of the Canary Islands. Specifically, five GES multifunction helicopters and rapid intervention teams (EIRIF) located on each of the smaller islands.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food also offers the availability of two 1,600-liter medium helicopters to replace the Kamov K-32 helicopter; the Puntagorda Brif, in La Palma; and a cargo plane on the ground (3,200 liter Air Tractor) at La Gomera airport.
Likewise, the Military Emergency Unit (UME) collaborates in case of need with troops according to demand. There are two detachments, one in Tenerife (Los Rodeos Barracks) and another in Gran Canaria (Gando Base).
