More than 4,500 hectares burned down in a matter of hours on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands (south-west) on Saturday July 15, prompting the evacuation of 2,500 residents, regional authorities said.
“The fire spread very quickly. The wind, the climate, the heat wave that we experienced, all the elements came together in the forest and we are talking about 4,500 hectares affected.”said the President of the Regional Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo.
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“It is a fire that has grown in a very short time”, added Tourism Minister Hector Gomez during the same press conference. The municipal council president of La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez, called on the residents to immediately follow the help. “If they ask us to leave our homes, we have to do that because it allows us to work better.” he said.
300 firefighters on duty, no injuries
“The fire started this morning in the community of Puntagorda and the affected area already covers more than 2,000 hectares.”, the Canarian government had previously stated in a statement. Fire “has reached the municipality of Tijarafe, where the residents have been evacuated”the government had added in relation to this place of 2,500 residents. “No injuries were recorded”he specified.
Around 300 firefighters fight the fires with the support of ten aircraft and wait for the arrival of two seaplanes on La Palma. The Red Cross said the displaced would be received in Tazacorte on the west coast of the island. This fire comes on the island of La Palma after the eruption of a volcano, from September to December 2021, also in the west of the island but further north.
In 2022, nearly 500 fires burned more than 300,000 hectares in Spain, a record in Europe, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis). And since the beginning of 2023, around 66,000 hectares have already burned down, which promises to be just as risky for the country, which has been hit hard by climate change. According to the Spanish weather agency, the spring was the hottest on record and the second driest.