An unusual incident occurred last night in Tenerife, when people reported smoke being emitted from the ground, and fire blowing off man-hole covers with flames roaring out of the drains. The Local Police recommended people to stay indoors with doors and windows closed due to the volume of smoke.
The incident began shortly before 9:30pm last night (Thursday) on Avenida de Los Majuelos by the Manocar roundabout in Santa Cruz, and all police and emergency services were dispatched to mitigate the effects of these flames and smoke.
Traffic was diverted and roads closed off due to the volume of thick dark smoke gushing out of sewers making it difficult to see.
According to the Tenerife Fire Consortium, they found the source of the fire which was: "a stubble fire in the ravine that affected the red pipe that connects to the sewers."
They explained that the pipe was damaged by the fire and, for this reason, "intense smoke and flames came out through almost 500m of sewers, but is now extinguished."
At this stage it is unknown if the fire was started intentionally or was an accident. Traffic in the area will return to normal this morning after Municipal Services have repaired the man-hole covers.
