“The fire is out of control, the scenario is not very positive. This was said Wednesday evening by Fernando Clavijo, head of the regional government, during a press conference in Tenerife, about the forest fire that broke out on the island on Tuesday. The fire raged in a wooded area and ravines in the northeastern part of the island of the Canary archipelago off Africa, forcing the evacuation of five villages.
“Our goal is for it to stop gaining ground. It was a very difficult day,” said Fernando Clavijo. About 250 firefighters and 13 planes and helicopters, including 3 aircraft sent from mainland Spain, worked to contain the blaze in a hard-to-reach area, he added. According to him, about 1,800 hectares have already been reduced to ashes. The villages of Arrate, Chivisaya, Media Montana, Ajafona and Las Lagunetas were evacuated on Wednesday morning, as a precaution, due to thick smoke.
Local authorities have closed the roads leading to the mountains in the northeast of the island. “We ask the population to respect all these roadblocks,” said the head of the archipelago’s civil protection department, Montserrat Roman.
The blaze comes after a heatwave that swept through the Canary Islands left many dry areas there, increasing the risk of wildfires. According to scientists, extreme weather events have intensified due to global warming. Heat waves are likely to be more frequent and intense, and their impact more widespread.