The forest fire on the Canary Island of Tenerife, which is popular with holidaymakers, is still out of control after about three days. The flames have so far covered around 5000 hectares of nature, said the Canary Prime Minister Fernando Clavijo late Friday evening. That’s roughly the size of 7,000 soccer fields. Due to the slower spread of the fire, the curfew for several thousand people in the municipality of El Rosario was lifted.
According to official information, the flames that had been raging in the north-east of the island since late Tuesday evening were also fought by around 300 emergency services on Saturday night.
After daybreak, a total of 18 firefighting planes and helicopters would be used again on Saturday, it said. A good 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes since the fires began. Emergency shelters have been set up in gymnasiums. The cause of the fire that broke out near the municipality of Arafo was still unclear.
Tui: So far no impairments when traveling
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a visit to the island for Monday. According to Prime Minister Clavijo, this is probably one of the worst fires on Tenerife in the past 40 years. According to official information, the extinguishing work was made more difficult from the start by the difficult-to-access terrain and the adverse weather conditions. Fortunately, the winds have meanwhile become much weaker, it said.
As a precaution, the access roads to the Teide volcano, which is popular with tourists, have been closed. Nevertheless, normality prevailed in the tourist areas, as the Tenerife travel authority emphasized. According to the latest information from the travel company Tui, there have been no restrictions on travel so far.
