The forest fire that broke out this morning in the forestal area of Los Realejos and has spread to San Juan de La Rambla, is still burning out of control and now covers 100 hectares with a perimeter of five kilometres, which is equivalent to an area of one million square metres.
This was detailed in a press conference held at 8pm tonight by the spokesman for the Canary Islands Government, Julio Pérez; the president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Pedro Martín; and the head of the Civil Protection and Emergency Services, Monserrat Ramos, who have insisted that the weather conditions will not improve in the next 24 hours and therefore the fire will not be stabilized anytime soon.
So far, the Fuente de Pedro camping area, the Barranco de la Arena Campsite, as well as the El Lagar and La Tahona recreational areas, plus 13 homes that are closest to the fire, have been evacuated preventively on the recommendation of the Guardia Civil, with 28 adults and three minors who are staying in second homes or with relatives and friends.
Pérez has recognized that the affected area is "relatively small" and therefore the fire is at a "controllable magnitude" although he stated that there are elements that require the "maximum attention" by the authorities such as the high temperatures, low humidity and the wind, which for now is blowing with less intensity than at other times of the day.
"It is a relatively small fire at the moment, but it has the potential to spread due to the dryness of the vegetation and the weather conditions," he stressed, recalling that Los Campeches in Los Realejos has experienced some of the worst forest fires on the island in previous years.
He added that "it is not foreseeable that it will be controlled in the next few hours, because the humidity is not going to drop nor will the temperatures, but there are sufficient aerial means (eight helicopters and an Air Tractor) to ensure continual watering of the blaze.”
Pérez also confirmed that they have requested a seaplane from the Ministry of the Environment but it will not be available for a few days due to the large number of fires on the mainland.
At the moment there are 230 people working to stabilise the fire, between aerial and ground crews, 150 of which are firefighters, alongside three Emergency and Rescue helicopters, another two from the Cabildo, a Kamov helicopter, and an Air tractor (cargo plane on the ground) from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco), in addition to a Guardia Civil helicopter which is coordinating the aerial actions.
On land, firefighters from the Tenerife Cabildo, the Firefighters Consortium, and the EIRIF teams of the Canary Islands Government based in La Gomera, and BRIF from Miteco are all participating.
Security resources from both the Local Police and the State security forces, the Canarian Police and Civil Protection, the Canary Emergency Service (SUC) and the Red Cross are also involved.
With the declaration of Level 2 of the fire at 2pm this afternoon, the Military Emergency Units (UME) have been incorporated into the extinguishing tasks, with the first contingent that deploys a platoon made up of 20 soldiers, three fire engines, and a water tanker, with more troops being deployed from Gran Canaria during the night.
