Thousands evacuated in Tenerife, Spain, as summer forest fires reignite

TENERIFE, Canary Islands, Spain, Oct 5 (Reuters) – More than 3,000 people on the Spanish island of Tenerife evacuated their homes as a forest fire caused by high temperatures and strong winds devastated a forested area already devastated by a fire in August.

Emergency services said on social media that they had requested assistance from the army’s Military Emergency Unit, stating that the fire, which started on Wednesday, was a high-level emergency.

The August wildfire burned for days and destroyed about 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of forest within the national park surrounding the Teide volcano, Spain’s highest peak. Thousands of people were also evacuated then and most returned to their homes.

“Temperatures will continue to be higher (than usual), so we expect more fires to reactivate in the area,” Rosa Dávila, head of the local government of Tenerife, said in a press conference.

He did not give any estimate on when evacuees will be able to return to their homes. About 30 hectares have been affected since Wednesday afternoon, she said.

Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic off northwest Africa, is on alert for high temperatures that are expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout Thursday.

The national meteorological service AEMET said Spain as a whole recorded a record six consecutive days of unseasonable heat between September 28 and October 4 and more were expected.

Scientists have linked scorching temperatures and dry, windy conditions in many parts of the world, including southern Europe, to climate change.

The August fire had been controlled but never completely extinguished, and embers were still burning in the forest.

It usually takes two or three months to completely extinguish a large bushfire if it is rainy and humid, but current above-average temperatures make this more difficult, local emergency services said. The stable dry climate increases the risk of fires and droughts.

Even so, the regional leader of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, was optimistic that the fire on the already charred land can be controlled.

“There is less fuel (for the fire), so it shouldn’t get out of control,” he said Thursday at a business event in Madrid.

Forest fires usually occur during the summer months in Spain and neighboring Portugal and are rarer in autumn. However, in October 2017 both countries suffered hundreds of large fires that claimed the lives of 45 people in Portugal and four in Spain.

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