Tenerife fire ‘out of control’; more to evacuate

Blaze comes as Spain awaits new heat wave

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Canary Islands — Thousands more residents of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands have fled their homes as a wildfire that authorities deemed “out of control” raged on for a fourth day.

The regional government for the Canary Islands said that 4,000 more people were ordered to evacuate on Saturday.

Those were in addition to the 4,500 people who on Friday were forced to move out of harm’s way on the Atlantic island, which is home to around a million people and is a popular tourist destination.

That figure of more than 8,000 evacuees is expected to rise.

The Canary Islands have been in drought for most of the past few years, just like most of mainland Spain.

The islands have recorded below-average rainfall in recent years because of changing weather patterns.

The Tenerife fire comes as Spain’s mainland is bracing for another heat wave. Spain’s state weather service issued a warning Saturday that temperatures would be on the rise in the coming days, hitting 104 degrees in parts of the mainland.

Spain had a record-hot 2022 and is setting heat records this year amid a prolonged drought that has authorities on alert for wildfires.

Emergency services for the Canary Islands said later that the number of evacuees “could surpass 26,000” according to provisional calculations based on the island’s census. The service added that all those people who needed somewhere to take refuge would be directed to shelters.

The regional government said that “the fire is beyond our capacity to extinguish it” because of hot and dry conditions and high winds that have fanned the huge flames. Firefighters have been unable to establish a perimeter around the blaze that has consumed at least 12,355 acres.

“We have never seen a fire of this dimension on the Canary Islands,” the island’s governor, Rosa Dávila, said.

No injuries have been reported since the fire broke out late on Tuesday.

Some 265 firefighters battled the blaze with the help of 19 aircraft, which included units from the mainland sent to help. More reinforcements are on the way, the central government said.

The fire is located in a steep and craggy mountain area with pine trees, with several municipalities on its flanks. Access for firefighters is difficult.

The regional chief of the archipelago, Fernando Clavijo, said that police are investigating the cause of the fire.

The seven-island archipelago is located off the northwest coast of Africa and southwest of mainland Spain. At their nearest point, the islands are 60 miles from Morocco.

More than 2,000 people were evacuated in a wildfire on nearby La Palma island last month.

Arturo Rodriguez The Associated Press Fire advances Saturday through a forest in La Orotava on Spain’s Tenerife island. The government ordered thousands of more residents to evacuate.