The sky is blue again in the Tenerife municipalities of Arafo and Candelaria. For several days the fire dyed it orange and a cloud of smoke engulfed the entire northeast of the Canary Island. It is there that the worst fire of the year in Spain began, on the night of Tuesday, August 15, which has charred nearly 15,000 hectares and which this Thursday the Government of the Canary Islands already considered stabilized. The neighbors went, one by one, receiving the notice that they had to leave their houses due to the proximity of the flames. Initially, around 150 people were evicted, but in the days that followed, as the fire spread through 12 municipalities, the total figure exceeded 12,000 affected. Almost a week later, most have been able to return to their homes, although there are still 3,000 people evacuated. Four of the residents who were near the area where the fire broke out told this newspaper how they lived those first days and what they found when they returned.
A sudden flash from the garden
Miguel Pérez and Julia Marrero, a married couple aged 69 and 52 respectively, were sitting on a bench in the garden of their house —located in El Pino, in the upper part of Candelaria— on the night of the 15th, after dinner, when suddenly suddenly they saw a flash in the distance. It was the start of the fire. “First we saw a tiny focus and suddenlyboom! they began to spread”, explains Miguel. It ended up forming a line of fire in the Arafo mountains, the landscape that can be seen from Miguel and Julia’s house, the area where the fire started. The couple says that they were enveloped in a cloud of smoke and that they couldn’t even breathe. The worst, they say, was the fear that the fire could come down and reach them.
On Wednesday morning they were evicted, and went to the house of a friend who lives near the coast. After five days of great uncertainty, they were able to return. His house remains intact, but, in the distance, the damage that the fire has caused to the landscape can be seen: a part of the mountain is completely charred. On the ground there are still remains of the ash that fell from the sky and burned pineapples. Julia comments that she has bought two new brooms to sweep them. “We really wanted to go back to find out how our house was,” says Miguel. They are still not completely calm because in the distance a mountain of smoke can still be seen.
A restaurant 400 meters from the flames
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Going up the road TF-523 (Arafo) is the guachinche [tabernas típicas de Tenerife situadas en el campo en las que se sirve vino propio y una carta más o menos reducida] Los Loros viewpoint. His owner, Cristo Adan Gonzalez, 49, was about to go to sleep that Tuesday when, around 11:40 p.m., he received a call from some neighbors who live near his place to let him know that there was a fire. At that time he was at his house, in the lower part of Candelaria, near the coast. He spent the whole night in suspense and first thing in the morning he went worried to see his business. “When I arrived, I found the sources of the fire 400 meters away,” he says.
Christ describes that these days the only thing he has felt is sadness, pain and anguish. After three days of closure, on Saturday I can reopen the business. But since the road was still closed over the weekend, there was hardly any activity in the restaurant, which has spectacular views of the island. “On Monday it started to work with some normality,” he explains. His business, which depends to a large extent on tourism, has been financially affected these days due to the lack of traffic. During the first three days he religiously went to the restaurant to check that nothing had been burned and he remembers that visibility was zero, due to the smoke that was present. “The ash washed up on the beach!” he exclaims. He still feels uncertainty and fear thinking that the fire could be reactivated. “Now, to wait for the island to be saved. It is was remains”.
Goodbye to a month’s earnings
The Los Ciruelos farm, in Las Cuevecitas (Candelaria), is back to life after almost a week of inactivity. José María Gómez, 46, and his wife and his son live there. And 25 dogs. In that space, José María has his house and his business: a dog training and daycare company. After the fire started on Wednesday morning, everyone had to leave the farm. “With the smoke we couldn’t even see the door of the house. It looked like a barbecue”, jokes José María. He and his family went to a relative’s house, and some dogs stayed in shelters or returned to their owners, which was financially detrimental because that entailed money returns. To this was added that many clients canceled the reservations they had scheduled in the coming weeks, “out of fear.”
“We have lost between 1,000 and 1,200 euros, a month’s earnings,” laments José María. From his office, located at the entrance to the farm, he recounts that what he has had the worst is the uncertainty of thinking that his house could burn down and not knowing how long they would be evicted. “The fire was literally on top of the farm,” he says. The 25 dogs — some of which are strays and do not yet have owners — have also been able to return. José María hopes to be able to get back to normal next week, but he is aware that some clients are still scared.
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