The forest fire declared during the early hours of Friday to Saturday in the Canarian municipality of Puntagorda, on the island of La Palma, already affects more than 4,500 hectares of land and has forced the eviction of at least 2,000 people. The fire has already entered the municipality of Tijarafe, where there have been evacuations from different areas of both terms, including the population center of Tijarafe.
According to information pointed out by the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo – who has been on the island since early Saturday morning – more than a dozen houses have already been burned, although another twenty are at risk. It is an interface and forest fire with great potential, which is emitting secondary sources 200 meters away towards areas of crops, scrubland and pine forests.
Initially, the regional manager hoped that “if the weather is with us, it seems that with the means that are being put on the ground, today (Saturday) we could try to control it (the fire), but the wind is very changeable, it They expect strong streaks and you have to be very careful,” he said. His worst fears were confirmed as the hours went by to the point of acknowledging to the media that the fire was “out of control” due to the bad weather conditions, mainly due to the strong gusts of wind of more than 60 kilometers per hour that and high temperatures were expected.
In this same line, at the request of the Cabildo de La Palma, the situation passed to level 2 of seriousness. In this way, the Canarian Government assumed the direction of the emergency in application of the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Attention due to Forest Fires in this autonomous community (INFOCA).
Likewise, for the first time the ES-Alert system for warning the population has been used in the archipelago, which is called the reverse 1-1-2, according to Europa Press. Through it, a message can be sent to all mobile terminals that are active within the area to be evacuated, between the neighborhoods of Timizara, Aguatavar, El Pinar and the urban center of Tijarafe.
The start of the fire was located in the vicinity of the LP-1 highway, at kilometer point 76. The first alert calls were received at the emergency telephone number 112 of the Government of the Canary Islands a few minutes after one in the morning . As the day progressed, and given the risk of other fires, the Cabildo temporarily closed access and traffic on the insular network of trails, as well as on forest roads in risk areas.
Shortly after six in the evening, the fire had not entered the natural protected area of Caldera de Taburiente, but it had passed under El Reventón and was already in the area of the Hacienda del Cura. This evolution of the fire, together with the prevailing wind, made the experts fear that it could finally enter the aforementioned National Park.
preventive evictions
Preventively, a shelter has been evacuated and the residents of the Puntagorda residence for the elderly are confined awaiting the evolution of the fire. At the close of this information, about 2,050 people had had to temporarily leave their homes on notice from the authorities, as a precaution against the advance of the fire. At first, the Red Cross set up a facility in Tijarafe for the first assistance to the evacuees. Later, for greater security as it was one of the most affected places, it was moved and another was set up in Los Llanos de Aridane.
By land, more than 300 terrestrial means of the Cabildo, the Government of the Canary Islands and the central Executive are intervening to try to control the fire -including 150 troops from the Military Emergency Unit (UME), together with units of the Fire Department of La Palma and of Tenerife, the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), Canary Islands Police, Civil Guard, Local Police and Red Cross, among other emergency resources.
Up to a dozen aerial means have also participated in these tasks. These are three helicopters and a cargo plane on State land, three helicopters from the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) of the Canary Islands Government, a helicopter from the Cabildo de Tenerife and another from Gran Canaria, as well as one more helicopter from the Police Civilian in air coordination tasks. Two FOCA seaplanes from the Ministry have also been activated, based on the Peninsula.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has transferred his “solidarity” via Twitter to those affected and has made “all the necessary means” available to the Canarian Executive. The regional president, Fernando Clavijo, has “appreciated his message and his concern”, and specifically that he has contributed two seaplanes to the extinction work.
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