Battle against Tenerife wildfire improves, but the fire remains impossible to control

Published on August 21, 2023

cats rescued fire tenerife canary islands — Two cats rescued from the fire by the firefighters in Tenerife | Source: Bomberos de Tenerife

The conditions of the fire in Tenerife improved on Sunday, but it is still active, with great potential, which makes it impossible to control it, so it is necessary to continue acting on all fronts.

Updates about the fire in Tenerife

The area affected by the fire now reaches 12,813 hectares in 11 municipalities (as Los Realejos was also added to the list on Sunday), with a perimeter of 90 kilometers.
The most complicated part is located in Cho Marcial where action will be taken to prevent the fire from opening up in that area.
The positive evolution of the fire in the southern zone has allowed the return home for the people evacuated in Candelaria and different areas of Arafo.

Along these lines, the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, explained yesterday night the productive work during the day made it possible to have significant progress in controlling the fire, although he stressed that the situation remains complicated.

For her part, the president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, insisted that the fire continues active and with enormous voracity, for which she asked all residents to follow the instructions of the security forces and extinguishing personnel that " They are watching over their safety and that of their homes.”

The improvement experienced in some areas has allowed the return home of all the evicted residents in the municipality of Candelaria and most of the evacuees in Arafo, with the exception of Camino Juan Leal and the Pinalete area. Starting on Monday, and depending on the evolution of the fire, the relocation of the evicted in the municipality of La Esperanza will be evaluated.

The most complicated area of the fire at the moment is located in Cho Marcial where it was impossible to intervene during Sunday morning, although the conditions for carrying out safe actions improved throughout the day.

During the afternoon, a good part of the perimeter has been cooled, a more concrete head of the fire has been achieved, and fewer active fronts. On the opposite side, there have been advances in the fire in the Valley of La Orotava, Izaña and in Cho Marcial where work has been done mainly with aerial means.

The objective, as explained by the technicians, is to consolidate the entire northern part overnight, which will make it possible to disembark forcefully, both with land and air forces, in the area of Mal Abrigo and Cho Marcial and thus prevent the fire from breaking out through that area causing new evacuations in the municipalities of Fasnia and Arico.

In the northern area, work will be intensified from Tacoronte to Los Realejos to try to reach the complete closure of that front. However, the technicians warned that there will be reactivations in some points that will be handled by the units deployed in that area.

Throughout the night, a device made up of 379 firefighters worked in different active areas and first thing in the morning the 22 available aerial means will be gradually incorporated, two of them in coordination tasks, which will focus on carrying out discharges in the most complicated areas of the fire. The daytime ground device will be made up of 275 firefighters, 115 security personnel and 40 people dedicated to logistic tasks.