The president of the Cabildo, Antonio Morales, has confirmed that the fire declared at the summit of Gran Canaria this Tuesday is considered to be 95% stabilised, thanks to the hard work of the emergency services and favourable weather conditions that have allowed the advance of the flames to be contained.
Nine helicopters have been working on extinguishing the fire since early this morning, concentrating their water discharges at the heart of the fire in the Caldera de Los Marteles to prevent it from spreading.
It is estimated that the affected area is now around 400 hectares (1,000 acres or 4,000,000m2), an area that would have been much bigger if the fire had started lower down, as opposed to near the summit of the island, because a downward spread of fire is much slower than one going uphill.
The spread has also slowed down due to a change in vegetation in different areas that are more rocky than forest, and due to the improvement of environmental conditions with a humidity of 50% and a slight drop in temperatures.
The active front of the fire is still between 500 and 800 metres long and is being watered by air and ground crews that will continue working as long into the night as possible. It is hoped with a further drop in temperatures tonight that they can start to extinguish most of the fire and that by the morning it will be 100% controlled.
