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The Spanish tourist island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), located off the northwestern coast of Africa, is ravaged by a third fire in less than ten days, which remained Monday out of control.
The fire " is beyond our capacity for extinction, " Federico Grillo, the chief of the emergency services of the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, off the coast of Morocco, told reporters on Sunday night. see you Monday. The alarmist tone is clear about the gravity of the situation.
Started Saturday in the mountainous center of the island, the flames have already covered 6,000 hectares and have pushed thousands of people to evacuate their homes. The flames reached 50 meters in some places, preventing some 700 firefighters and other mobilized bodies from attacking them, even with the help of air. " The situation is bad, very bad. We have for at least two days , acknowledged Federico Grillo, evoking the high temperatures, the wind and the ash rains that can cause new starts of fire.
Comienza la rueda de prensa el #IFValleseco #IFGranCanaria that round is 6,000 hectare. The fire-extinguishing labor took place in the cola del incendio. Los esfuerzos concentrates in cerrar el flanco derecho. pic.twitter.com/Ht3YXXH1Hx
1-1-2 Canarias (@ 112canarias) August 19, 2019This island is very tourist: almost 14 million tourists last year, 40% of jobs in the archipelago. No casualties are yet to be deplored. A hundred people had to be " confined " in a cultural center in Artenara.
In addition, it has many protected areas. The fire is already spread over an area classified as a biosphere reserve by Unesco and entered the Tamadaba Natural Park, a pine forest among the wildest areas of Gran Canaria. The affected territory also includes the landscape of mountains and caves of Risco Caido, vestige of a pre-Hispanic civilization classified in July to the cultural heritage of Unesco.
(AFP)