Sánchez went to the Arafo Advanced Command Post, located on a plot of land at the end of Magallón street in this southern municipality. Broad display of media and massive presence of public representatives. They joined the appearance from the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, to mayors of various municipalities, including leaders of the Tenerife Council. In it, Pedro Sánchez accompanied the main announcement of a related commitment: «The Government of Spain is also going to get involved, as we are doing now from the point of view of civil protection, in the work of reconstruction, recovery and stabilization of the day by day of the affected citizens”.
The socialist politician had started by thanking the words of Fernando Clavijo and the insular president, Rosa Dávila, both nationalists, who had preceded him in the interventions. “It is very important to try to avoid any type of hoax,” he defended, before highlighting citizen behavior. And he continued: «At a time like the present, where in an overwhelming way we are seeing the catastrophic power that a fire has in the tenerife islandThis civic commitment of all citizens is very important and it is what has been seen since the start of this fire. Likewise, the head of the state Executive showed his “recognition” to the citizens and the “solidarity” of the Government of Spain “with those people directly affected, those people who have had to leave their homes, their homes, without knowing exactly if the a day later, or days later, they will be able to return to them and find them just as they left them ». Sánchez continued: “This recognition is very important and, above all, to extend it to public servants.”
«President Clavijo has said something very important: we are seeing devastating fires in other areas of the world, which have not only devastated a good part of the natural heritage of those islands, but have also caused people to die. Fortunately, in the Canary IslandsIn Tenerife, this has not happened,” he said. “Hopefully it doesn’t happen for the next few days,” she completed. “I make this reflection because it is very important to recognize the public nature of the Civil Protection system that Spain has,” she said.
Pedro Sánchez also considered that the following hours would be “very important”, to which he added that he hoped the weather would help “so that, definitely, in the next few hours, the next few days, the fire will be stabilized.” He stopped at “the coordination, cooperation and collaboration deployed between all the administrations”. And he stated: «It is important to remember that it was also in the Canary Islands, in The Palm, where an important conference of regional presidents was held, where we raised, modernized and updated that cooperation and collaboration of civil protection, which is allowing us to be much more effective in emergencies like the one we are experiencing. He maintained that there is a global commitment to the Island, and not only of the State, but of “the whole of Spanish citizenship.” “I think that at times like this it is very important to convey that solidarity and empathy, and that all of Spain is with the Canary Islands and with Tenerife,” he stressed, and added: “It is now, during this fire, and it will be after in the work of recovery and reconstruction of everything that has devastated ».
Appearance without questions
Pedro Sánchez finished his speech, turned around and left. It had been one of those appearances without questions. The president of the Council of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, and her regional counterpart, Fernando Clavijo. “We have to regret that more than 13,300 hectares have already been lost in a fire that has a perimeter of more than 90 kilometers,” stated the first, which highlighted the difficulties for its extinction due to “its characteristics”, the steepness of the terrain, its behavior “in an erratic way” and with “very high columns that threw sparks and caused secondary outbreaks.”
Dávila basted the above with a message trying to demonstrate that the insular institution acted hastily. “We saw that in the Cabildo from the beginning and, in just five hours, we went to level two to be able to count on all the means of the Government of the Canary Islands and the State,” he defended. “That is why I want to take advantage of the presence of the acting president, Pedro Sánchez, to thank the maximum coordination and all the means that have been allocated to extinction,” he said.
The thanks were extended to the population, “who have behaved in an exemplary manner in Tenerife.” “We have more than 13,000 evacuees. And the collaboration between the security forces, the Civil Guard, the Military Emergency Unit and all the bodies that have collaborated and worked, the Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades… are allowing us to see a thread of hope at this time and transmit it to the population, “he said. “At this time we do not know that there is any regret for the loss of any home,” he asserted after noon.
“The presence of the Government of Spain has been total, resounding, absolute”
“I, President, want to thank you, on behalf of the Government of the Canary Islands, for the attention, accompaniment, coordination and involvement of the Government of Spain in the work of extinguishing this fire,” Fernando Clavijo transmitted to Sánchez. “Since his statement, in the first hours I was able to contact Héctor Gómez, with the government delegate… and the reality is that from there the mechanism and coordination and protocols began to work,” he continued. «It worked with the ministers Margarita Robles, Teresa Ribera, Marlaska… I think that in moments of this difficulty is when the institutions and, mainly, the citizenry, give the best of themselves. The behavior of the people of Tenerife and the Canary Islands, because we must remember that there are media from councils, town halls and from all the islands, has been exemplary, “said the nationalist.
Clavijo also referred to the “forceful and effective response to the catastrophe we are facing.” And he added: “You only have to look at other parts of the world to see what is happening and to be able to compare and understand the difficulty that all our personnel from the different administrations have faced to defend the Island from a fire of this magnitude.” .
“President, thank you for the visit, for the Government’s commitment to this situation and to the Canary Islands,” Clavijo said in his speech. “We have to continue working, but our admiration and thanks to all those who are doing it on the front line of fire go ahead,” he added.
Overlooking the peak of Cho Marcial
From the Magallón street arafera, location point of the Advanced Command Post, an apparently contained evolution of the focus of the area called Pico Cho Marcial could be seen yesterday morning. The first deputy mayor of Güímar, Airam Puerta, was in the area coinciding with the visit of the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and explained that Pico Cho Marcial is the border between Güímar and Arafo. Puerta indicated that the fire was in the Comarca de Agache at between 2,000 and 2,300 meters. «It has not yet gone down to the forest mass. The Agache pine forest is already bordering the municipality of Fasnia. It is possible that today [por ayer] continue to the south, depending on the direction of the wind,” he said. «And here, in the Güímar Valley area, it is somewhat contained in the areas of Las Dehesas, Los Pelados, the vicinity of the Badajoz ravine… But it continues to be maintained at a fairly high level, possibly due to the action of the wind» , he said, before stating that the weather was giving “some respite.” “We are waiting to activate the eviction of the homes if necessary,” said the socialist politician. “Right now it is holding at quite high levels and therefore I don’t think that will happen. Another very different thing is that the direction of the wind changes and that the front advances towards the lower part of the municipality, “he added about this possibility. In this scenario, the residents of Güimares handled the situation with logical concern, but also calmly. «They see it quite far still. It is true that at night it is impressive, because you can see the glow in the sky. But the distances are greater than three kilometers,” AiramPuerta said on Monday. | DR
