Thousands evacuated in Canary Islands after ‘most complex’ fire in 40 years – The Boston Globe
“Tonight, at least, the fire has behaved and the weather has behaved normally,” Fernando Clavijo, the regional president for the Canary Islands, told reporters Friday, adding that firefighters had worked intensely to stop the fire’s progress after it moved in an unpredictable manner earlier in the week. Clavijo said he was hopeful that the forecast would improve, but he added that the blaze still was not under control.
At least eight municipalities have been affected by the fire, though local authorities on Friday lifted the lockdown order on La Esperanza, a village northeast of Teide National Park, where 3,820 residents had been ordered earlier in the week to shelter in place. The priority Friday, Clavijo said, was to confine the fire to an area near the village.
For residents closest to the fire, the past few days have been marked by streams of choking smoke and an overcast sky with an orange glow that has been filled with falling ash.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said María Luisa Pacheco, who began receiving alerts Thursday morning to evacuate her home of 60 years in the town of La Orotava, and watched the fire progress with tears in her eyes, according to the Spanish newspaper El País.
“The situation is upsetting,” said Ana Belén Perdigón, 44, another resident who also had to evacuate, told the paper. She and her family have been staying in a local sports center with dozens of others, worried that they will not be able to return home.
Southern Europe has been hit hard by extreme temperatures this summer, helping stoke conditions for hundreds of wildfires in the region. Among the areas to swelter was the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands, a popular tourist destination in the Atlantic Ocean just west of Morocco, where temperatures have soared above 100 degrees in some areas.
Though it is difficult to link individual events to climate change, experts say weather patterns are intensifying the conditions that fuel disastrous wildfires and help them to burn longer and more aggressively.
And more heat is expected in the coming days, with high temperatures forecast for Spain, France, and other parts of Europe, a source of consternation to Spanish firefighters concerned that the heat will make it even more difficult to bring the Tenerife blaze fully under control.
In addition to the high temperatures, the Canary Islands have experienced less rainfall than usual in recent years, local officials said, and experts said the combination of the two has increased the risk of wildfires. Blazes last month burned through the island of La Palma, forcing 4,000 residents to flee and razing an estimated 10,000 acres.
Advertisement
The Tenerife fire, Clavijo said Thursday, was the “most complex” that the Spanish archipelago had seen in 40 years, making it “difficult” to quell because of the terrain and weather conditions. Wildfires last summer ravaged a record 750,000 acres in Spain, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.
Authorities on Tenerife were also spurred to place restrictions on water use after a canal funneling water to the island’s north ruptured and they encountered difficulties reaching the area to repair it.
More resources arrived Friday to bolster hundreds of firefighters and a fleet of aircraft already working to stamp out the blaze, including a contingent from the nearby island of Fuerteventura and equipment from the Defense Ministry. Government officials have cautioned that people in affected areas should take care and wear masks to protect themselves from smoke inhalation.
“With all the material that is in the air and the wind, air quality and breathing are really difficult in some areas,” Clavijo said Friday.