The situation of the forest fire that began on the night of August 15 on Mount Arafo, on the island of Tenerife, has become complicated in the northern zone in recent hours, for which reason the INFOCA Plan Emergency Management has been forced to order new evacuations.

The Minister of Social Welfare, Candelaria Delgado, has estimated the number of evacuees at 26,000, in the municipalities of La Orotava, La Matanza, La Victoria, El Sauzal, Güímar, Arafo, Candelaria, Santa Úrsula, Tacoronte, El Rosario and Los Realejos. Until this noon the figure was 8,500, but it was only an estimate. The new figure has been calculated from data obtained from the census.

The fire, which continues uncontrolled, already affects 6,731 hectares and has a perimeter of 72 kilometers that covers the 11 aforementioned municipalities.

The acting interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who visited the island this Saturday, stated, after meeting with the Canarian president, Fernando Clavijo, that Seprona and the Civil Guard are working “from minute one” to find out the causes of the fire. He has also insisted that they work with the conviction that “we have all the necessary material means”. “We can feel reasonably safe and we hope that in the next few days we can have the fire under control and that the weather is good,” he said.

The Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Miranda, explained to the media that the reason for the new evacuations is that the weather changed overnight. “The operation that is directing the fire has just sent an SMS to the entire affected population urging them to leave their homes due to the danger and proximity of the fire, asking them to place themselves under the orders of the different security forces that are acting in the area,” he said.

The technical director of the emergency, Montse Román, explained that the evacuations have been carried out in a prioritized manner according to the proximity of the fire. Likewise, she pointed out that for the moment areas of La Orotava, La Matanza and La Victoria have been evacuated and that new ones are being prepared in El Sauzal and Santa Úrsula, depending on the direction of the wind. At noon on Saturday, the eviction of some areas in Los Realejos was also decreed.

The population of the municipalities of La Orotava, Santa Úrsula and Los Realejos is asked to carry out a cleaning of at least 15 meters around the houses, remove the cylinders from the outside and, in the case of having to be evacuated, close the doors and windows so there is no oxygen inside.

About 500 members of the General State Administration are working to put out the fire. There are 13 aerial means of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and two new Foca amphibious aircraft will be incorporated, making there a total of five.

Also working in the fight against the flames are two cargo planes on the ground, three reinforcement brigades in forest fires with more than 70 members, 206 members of the Military Emergency Unit and 46 vehicles and more than 200 members of the Civil Guard.

During a press conference, at noon this Saturday, to update the information on the evolution of the fire, the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, explained that during the night “reality exceeded expectations.” “The weather has been really severe with the fire conditions. The winds, the temperatures and the circumstances were worse than expected,” he said.

However, the work carried out in the last hours has meant that the worst scenario has not been reached despite very adverse conditions, with the fire being in an intermediate scenario of the three expected. At present there are three main fronts: one in the Hoya Marcial that is burning slowly; another in Santa Úrsula with a slope in which it is impossible to put personnel due to the steepness of the orography; and the front that has motivated the evacuations during the last hours.

“The technicians point out that the circumstances are exceptional, it is a hungry fire and with a quite unusual behavior in that the weather complicates it,” said the president.

For his part, Clavijo commented that three people have been located who broke the seals in the Las Lagunetas area and tried to carry out fire-fighting maneuvers without authorization, people who have been identified and will be penalized administratively and criminally.

The president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, has commented that the fire already affects eleven municipalities and that it has a dimension “never seen in the Canary Islands” since there are records of this type of situation. The fire from a moment was in a critical situation and out of extinguishing capacity, so the first objective has been to preserve lives.

The technical chief of extinction Pedro Martínez has commented that the efforts will be focused, he has highlighted the complexity of the orography in many of the points of the perimeter that have made it difficult for both the intervention of land and air means. “The fire is still outside of our ability to extinguish”, he has acknowledged at the press conference on Saturday.

The island has experienced larger fires in terms of burned area, especially in 2007, but the current weather conditions and topography led Clavijo to affirm that the archipelago was facing its “most complex” fire in 40 years.

In 2022, more than 500 fires destroyed 300,000 hectares in Spain, a European record, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis). In 2023, more than 75,000 hectares have already burned.

Candelaria

· Dispersed population centers in the upper area of ??Igueste

· Cruz del Camino to Los Brezos Recreational Area (upper part of Araya).

The rosary

The Barriers

Preventorio Street from the TF24 intersection to the Las Raíces Recreational Area included

· Upper part of Barranco Hondo

· The roses

The Apaches (La Huerta road)

the orotava

· La Resbala and Pinolere

· High Pine

.TF -21 -TF -326 to the term of Los Realejos (Hoya Farrais Village included). Road TF -21 from Cueva los Pinos sense uphill to p.k.7 . 7, climb by shortcut El Sauce to contact with TF -21 p.k.10,400 we continue up TF -21 to Chasna, followed by TF -326 to Caserío Hoya de Farrais.

Arafo

· Road to La Granja, Los Eres, Lomo Juan Lian and the access to Barranco de Añavingo

· El Pinalete, Galvan, Las Vigas, Los Ramos

willow

Baboseras Altas, Camino el Pozo, Lomo la Piedra Caldereta, Calle San Cristóbal al monte and La Vica

The slaughter

· La Vica and El Pirul

.San Antonio (from the San Cristóbal highway towards the mountain) and La Resbala (from the San Cristóbal highway towards the mountain)

Saint Ursula

From Vera del Barranco (Pino Alto) to Tosca de Ana María towards the mountain, the lower limit being the streets Aino Alto, Guanches, El Cantillo, Cuesta Perera, Fuente Gonzalo, Tosca Barrios, Morra Los Sauces, La Rana and Tosca de Ana Maria

Guimar

· Track of the Meadows

· Los Pelados Road

· Las Coloradas Road

Acentejo’s Victory

From the neighborhood of La Resbala to the neighborhood of La Vera towards the mountain, the lower limit being c/San Juan from La Resbala to La Vera through c/Los Laureles

The Realejos

From Caserío Hoya de Farrais to Los Placeres towards the mountain, with the lower limit being the TF326 road from km 6 to km 2.2, west limit Camino Los Placeres and eastern limit, Camino Tres Pinos Las Rosas

tacoronte

Nuclei located within the area with the northern limit of the Camino Real Orotava, from the T.M. from El Sauzal, continuing along the TF-226 Highway to the T.M. of San Cristobal de La Laguna. West limit the T.M. of El Sauzal, Eastern Limit the T.M. from San Cristóbal de La Laguna and the southern limit of Mt.