The uncontrolled fire in the forest crown burns 1,800 hectares
Baku, September 17, AZERTAC
The level 2 wildfire - under control of the Government of the Canary Islands - declared Tuesday night at 11:36 p.m. near the Chivisaya viewpoint, in the highlands of Arafohad burned more than 1,800 hectares of pine forest at the close of this edition and forced the evacuation of 150 people from the scattered hamlets of this municipality in the south of Tenerife and the neighbor of Candelaria, according to the Tenerife Weekly.
The uncontrolled fire mainly affects these two towns but has also spread to the northern slope, where it has burned a few hectares in Santa Úrsula and La Victoria, and threatens the mountains of La Orotava and El Rosario. The two main flanks, which emitted the largest appreciable columns of smoke in all of Tenerife, met last night in the San Pedro ravine, in the Arafo heights, and above Igueste, in the Candelaria heights. In total, the different sources are distributed over a perimeter of 22 kilometers. Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands Government, assured at the press conference in which he took stock of the day that “the scenario is not very positive.” Both Clavijo and Rosa Dávila, president of the Council of Tenerifeand the technicians who intervened in the appearance clarified that the flames advance “without control” through very steep areas, “some inaccessible.”
“The night is going to be key,” said the Canarian president, who explained that the main efforts will focus, on the one hand, on defending the scattered populations closest to the forest crown of the two southern municipalities and, on the other, in preventing the fire from advancing on the north face through the valley of La Orotava and the mountains of El Rosario. In total, 258 professionals and 15 aerial means - 14 helicopters and a seaplane that arrived in the afternoon from the Peninsula- are fighting the flames both on the different fronts and at the advanced control post installed at the Andrés Orozco de Arafo school. The first seaplane incorporated into the operation had time to make only seven flights after loading water in the Port of Santa Cruz. From this center it was seen throughout the day yesterday how the great columns of smoke were heading in the direction of Santa Cruz. Today it is expected that another two seaplanes arriving from the Peninsula will join this operation.
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