The forest fire declared in Tenerife on Tuesday night has now entered the upper area of the municipality of La Orotava, and now affects six municipalities on the island. The emergency services have reported this morning (Thursday) that evacuations have continued overnight in the municipality of El Rosario and in the Las Barreras neighbourhood.
The preventive evacuation of part of Aguamansa, Pinolere and the upper part of La Florida, in La Orotava, has also taken place although it is due to the smoke more than the actual fire at the moment.
The Quiquirá Pavilion has been enabled for the rehousing of evacuated people by the Red Cross, while the open shelter for evacuees in Arafo has changed its location due to the evolution of the fire and has moved to the San Isidro-El Chorillo sports hall, in El Rosario.
The fire began around 11:50pm on Tuesday in the Arafo mountains, in the south of Tenerife, and has spread to the municipalities of Candelaria, El Rosario, La Victoria, Santa Úrsula and La Orotava, the latter three in the north of the island. The affected area, according to the latest estimate made last night, is 1,800 hectares with a perimeter of 22 kilometres, some of them in very steep areas inaccessible to both air and land resources.
During the night almost 200 troops have been working with the objective, among other things, of containing the fire and preventing it from advancing towards populated areas.
Government advice due to bad air quality:
The government are advising people to use FFP2 masks as the air quality is unfavourable as a result of the forest fire. They have released a statement warning that the smoke is made up of a mixture of gases and small particles that are emitted by the combustion of vegetation and other materials.
Thus, the population of Güímar, Arafo, Candelaria, and El Rosario are recommended to use FFP2 masks outside to avoid respiratory problems, and to try and protect their eyes as far as possible. It is also advisable to close doors and windows and, if you have air conditioning, put it in recirculation mode with clean filters.
It is also advisable to avoid staying outside and carrying out intense or prolonged physical activities. The symptoms of smoke intoxication are coughing, irritation of the eyes, nose or throat, difficulty breathing deeply, rapid heartbeat, fatigue or chest pains or discomfort.
The population considered sensitive and the risk groups are people with existing respiratory or cardiac diseases, such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema; children, pregnant women and the elderly and people who perform intense physical activity.
Extinguishing work:
109 firefighters and 34 members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) have started working on the extinction of the forest fire this morning, that began in the mountains of the municipality of Arafo.
The UME soldiers have been working since the early hours of this morning in the northeast area of the fire in collaboration with the first seaplanes, as well as monitoring the front of the fire with drones.
