1689419884 A forest fire on La Palma burns 140 hectares and

A forest fire on La Palma burns 140 hectares and forces the eviction of 500 residents

In the municipality of Puntagorda with 2,300 inhabitants in the northwest of the island of La Palma, a forest fire broke out this morning. The flames have so far affected around 140 hectares of land where up to 11 houses have been burned and around 500 residents have been displaced, according to Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo, who took office this Friday.

“When the time is with us, it seems to be basically all day [este sábado]”With the means that will be used on the ground, we could try to control it, but the wind is very changeable, strong gusts are expected and you have to be very careful,” said Clavijo.

Reality has not given a day’s rest to the new President, who this Saturday morning traveled to the island to follow the evolution of the fire from the Island Operations Coordination Center (Cecopin). He was accompanied by the Canary Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, who had planned several events on La Palma for this Saturday.

The fire broke out near the LP-1 highway. The Canary Islands Government’s 112 emergency number received the first alarm calls at 01:05. At 6:12 a.m., the Island Council requested that the emergency be moved to Level 2 and the operation taken over by the Canary Islands Government.

The environment in which the llamas live is extremely rural. Crops, scrub and pine trees thrive here, and houses are also housed here. There are currently seven aircraft involved in the extinction: three helicopters from the Government of the Canary Islands’ Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) and four from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. The Military Emergency Response Unit is expected to join the firefighting operation in the morning.

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The islands endured a heatwave last week, resulting in the highest temperatures in all of Spain on Wednesday. The villages of San Nicolás and San Bartolomé de Tirajana, both in Gran Canaria, recorded 41.8 and 40.6 degrees respectively. This phenomenon was not unknown on the island of La Palma: the municipality of Puntagorda suffered from 40.3 degrees.

A car was burned by the flames of the forest fire that started at dawn on Saturday July 15 in the municipality of Puntagorda, on the island of La Palma.A car was burned by the flames of the forest fire that started at dawn on Saturday July 15 in the municipality of Puntagorda, on the island of La Palma. Miguel Calero (EFE)

The island of La Palma (population just over 75,000) is one of the most densely forested islands in the archipelago. The last major fire occurred in the community of El Paso in late August 2020, just a year before the volcano erupted in the same period. This fire affected an area of ​​around 1,200 hectares in total, although it is estimated that the area burned covered 800 hectares of Canarian pine trees, pastures, scrubland and some vineyards, as well as some houses.