More than 26,000 people evacuated after ‘out of control’ wildfire in Spain’s Tenerife

More than 26,000 people were evacuated from their homes on the Spanish island of Tenerife, as of Saturday (August 19) as the wildfire continued to rage out of control, said the emergency services. The local officials said that the Spanish holiday island has never witnessed a fire at this scale. 

As of Saturday afternoon, more than 26,000 people may have been evacuated, said the Canary Islands emergency services on X (formerly Twitter) citing provisional estimates. It also marks a sharp rise in evacuations after officials in an update on Friday said some 4,500 people had been evacuated since the fire began on Tuesday night. 

As many as 11 towns have been affected by wildfire, said local officials, reported Reuters. Earlier on Saturday, Montse Roman, technical director of the emergency, said that the figures are still being collated after he said that there was no immediate update on the number of people evacuated. 

The emergency services official also warned about possible “further evacuations may take place if the fire spreads.” Additional evacuations were ordered on Saturday morning due to worsening weather overnight, said regional leader Fernando Clavijo, in a press conference. 

Some people evacuated from La Victoria, in the north-west of the island, are also receiving medical help. “The night before we arrived, we had a pretty bad time. Everything was burning... the roofs were full (of ash),” resident Paulina Fernandez told Reuters.

According to media reports, fierce flames were seen overnight on Friday while helicopters were seen dropping water, the next day, on areas close to homes while smoke continued to billow in the air. 

Clavijo said that a rise in temperatures and stronger winds overnight on Friday worsened the situation. He also spoke about how thick smoke was hampering efforts to extinguish the fire from air.

Tenerife Council President Rosa Davila told reporters that the fire was at a scale that has never been seen before in the Canary Islands. The priority was to “protect people’s lives,” said Davila, adding that none of the houses had been destroyed due to the blaze, citing the fire brigade. 

So far, some 5,000 hectares have been engulfed by the wildfire with a perimeter of 50 kilometres. Pedro Martinez, one of the officials in charge of putting out the blaze said that the fire’s perimeter had “most certainly grown a lot” overnight and was “descending steadily” down the mountainside in the northern Santa Ursula area, according to AFP. 

(With inputs from agencies)

 

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