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Spain: Thousands displaced after Canary Islands wildfire

Dunya News

Wildfires drove thousands from their homes near a rare nature reserve in Spain's Canary Islands.

Firefighters struggled to control the flames that engulfed the wooded hillsides on the island of La Gomera, reducing lush green trees to black dust, spewing grey smoke and displacing residents and tourists.That fire started more than a week ago and has devastated more than 4,100 hectares (more than 10,000 acres) of land, including hundreds of hectares in the Garajonay National Park, a UNESCO-listed reserve home to rare subtropical plants.Water-bombing aircraft were dousing the flames that crackled rapidly through ravines in the west of La Gomera.It is very difficult because of the high temperatures, the wind, the low humidity and the lack of aircraft, a spokesman for the island council, Karen Bencomo, told AFP.We have three water-bombing planes and four helicopters. We need 10 more planes.On the other side of the island in the main town San Sebastian, beds were prepared in school lodgings for hundreds of evacuees, mostly tourists and visitors who came by boat from the west, mayor Angel Luis Castilla said.More than 5,000 people remained displaced from various villages on Monday afternoon, the regional government estimated, half of them from around Vallehermoso in the north of the island.That area was evacuated on Monday to guarantee the safety of residents as the fire advanced through nearby ravines, the regional government said in a statement late Monday.Everyone is clearing out. They are moving us, saying it is a precaution, but who knows? We can see the smoke getting closer, said Maria Gonzalez, 43, a visitor from Tenerife, who fled Vallehermoso with her mother and daughter.People are very nervous and afraid, she told AFP as residents piled into buses and cars to evacuate.On Sunday night thousands of people had flocked to the western port of Puerto de Vueltas on La Gomera, from where some caught boats for San Sebastian.A smaller fire burned hundreds of hectares on the neighbouring island of Tenerife. Regional security minister Javier Gonzalez Ortiz told a news conference Monday morning that fire was stabilised.Far away on the Spanish mainland, near the southeastern city of Alicante, a forest fire killed two members of the emergency team fighting the blaze, the regional government said.Firefighters battled through the night against the flames in the pine forests around Torre de les Macanes north of Alicante.By Monday morning the fire had been stabilised and the flames had died down after covering about 600 hectares, regional government official Serafin Castellano said.Spain is at particularly high risk of fires this summer after suffering its driest winter in 70 years. The heat topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days, but eased around most of the country on Sunday.Last month four people were killed by a wildfire in the northern Catalonia region.The Spanish government said 132,300 hectares of land had been burnt this year up to August 5.