After the devastating forest fires in Hawaii that killed at least 114, emergency services in several countries continue to fight violent fires. It continues to burn, especially on the Canary Island of Tenerife, which is popular with holidaymakers, in Greece and in several provinces in Canada.
On Tenerife, the flames have already covered around 120 square kilometers of nature – that corresponds to a good 16,000 football pitches or almost six percent of the Spanish Atlantic island. In Greece and Canada, on the other hand, there was hope that the situation would ease soon.
Tenerife
So far there have been no reports of deaths anywhere. The suffering in Tenerife, for example, is great: “We panicked (…) this is a catastrophe for us Canarios,” said pensioner Antonio Jiménez of the regional digital newspaper “CanariasAhora”. According to official estimates, by Sunday there were around 13,000 people on Tenerife who followed the authorities’ call for evacuation in the affected areas in the north and north-east.
However, one does not know exactly, because the vast majority does not go to the emergency shelters set up especially in gyms, but to friends and relatives. In the meantime, normality prevailed in the tourist areas, it said. The police now consider arson to be the cause.
Canary Islands Prime Minister Fernando Clavijo spoke of one of the worst fires on the island in the past 40 years. Up to 300 firefighters and 24 firefighting planes and helicopters are deployed simultaneously to fight the fire. The terrain that is difficult to access, the adverse weather conditions with extreme drought, heat of up to 34 degrees and strong winds as well as the heavy smoke development made extinguishing work difficult. According to the authorities, an area of 12,800 hectares is affected, which is roughly the size of 18,000 football pitches.
Greece
Slight relaxation in the extreme north-east of Greece: several large forest and bush fires were partly brought under control yesterday with the massive use of fire-fighting aircraft. “The situation is a little better,” a firefighter told state radio (ERA -1).
But the danger is not over yet. According to the authorities, the flames damaged several houses in the village of Loutros and also destroyed agricultural land. Eight villages near the city of Alexandroupolis were evacuated.
Canada
In western Canada, wind, drought and heat continued to fuel the forest fires on Sunday (local time), according to media reports. In the particularly affected town of West Kelowna on Lake Okanagan in southern British Columbia, the situation is “finally looking better,” said local fire chief Jason Brolund at a press conference, according to CBC. He said no more homes were demolished in the community in a 24-hour period. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would send soldiers and equipment to the province.
A larger fire that is threatening West Kelowna, among other places, covered an area of 11,000 hectares, authorities estimated on Sunday. About 150 kilometers further north, two fires had united on Saturday, according to authorities, to form a fire of more than 41,000 hectares. The authorities said the region around Lake Shuswap was affected.
Wildfires are common in many regions of Canada. However, they are currently experiencing the worst known season in the country’s history. Experts also see the extreme fires as a result of the climate crisis, which has led, among other things, to dry soil.
