The wildfire that has been raging in Tenerife since Tuesday has destroyed an area of almost 3,300 hectares, the authorities report. More than 4,500 people have been evacuated and the fire is still out of control.
“The fire is still advancing but the priority is to defend the populated places tonight,” Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo said at a press conference around midnight.
“This is probably the most complex fire we’ve had in the Canary Islands,” said Clavijo. “At least in the last 40 years.”
Extinguishing work is made more difficult because the sixteen available firefighting aircraft and helicopters can only be deployed in daylight. The fire currently has a circumference of more than thirty kilometers and is being fought by 250 firefighters.
Authorities are trying to prevent the fire from spreading to densely populated areas, such as Santa Cruz, the island’s main city. The fire is still about twenty kilometers away.
After the heat wave this summer, many areas in the Canary Islands were left bone dry, increasing the risk of wildfires. A month ago, thousands of residents of the nearby Canary Island of La Palma had to evacuate because of a major wildfire.