Save the article
This summer’s disastrous Tenerife fire has flared up again. 3,000 residents have been evacuated on the Canary Island, and a military emergency force has been deployed.
The fire is now raging again in a mountainous forest area. According to regional spokeswoman Rosa Dávila, the fire area has a perimeter of just over 90 kilometers.
The regional president Fernando Clavijo says, according to Spanish media, that the big fire in August was never really extinguished, but that it has been smoldering in nature since then. Now, unfavorable weather has led to it flaring up again, and nighttime images show how entire ridges are on fire and light up the surroundings.
Clavijo also says that the 3,000 closest residents have been evacuated. On the night of Thursday, the situation was judged to be so urgent that the UME (Unidad Militar de Emergencia), a branch of the defense created for major emergencies, was called in.
The fire area is located where the terrain rises steeply out of the sea on Tenerife’s north coast, quite close to the historic and tourist-dense town of Puerto de la Cruz.