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Smoke and a firefighter vehicle in the peaks of the municipality of Ororava, in the area of Pino Alto, during the forest fire that began the day before, on the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain, October 5, 2023. /CFP
Smoke and a firefighter vehicle in the peaks of the municipality of Ororava, in the area of Pino Alto, during the forest fire that began the day before, on the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain, October 5, 2023. /CFP
Soldiers and firefighters were battling to control a new wildfire on Spain’s Tenerife island, which has forced approximately 3,000 people to evacuate their homes for safety, as stated by the Canary Islands government on Thursday.
The blaze, which ignited on Wednesday, is centered around the towns of Santa Ursula and La Orotava in the mountainous northeast of the island, away from Tenerife’s main tourist areas in the southwest.
This same area endured one of the island’s worst wildfires in decades in August, scorching 14,000 hectares of pine forest and scrubland, and leading to the evacuation of about 12,000 residents over several weeks. Although that wildfire was brought under control, it was never fully extinguished. Consequently, small fires have continued to erupt periodically in the same area due to winds and high temperatures.
The Canary Islands government reported that around 120 agents, including soldiers and firefighters, were participating in the operation to extinguish the fire. So far, an area of only 30 hectares has been affected.
Tenerife, like the rest of Spain, has been grappling with an intense drought for several years and unusually high temperatures so far in October.
The seven Canary Islands are located off the northwest coast of Africa and southwest of mainland Spain.
Source(s): AP
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