About 9,000 people have been evacuated from their homes on Gran Canaria in Spain’s Canary Islands, where firefighters are battling a wildfire that has burned more than 23 square miles of land, The Guardian reports.
Gran Canaria Wildfire Triggers Evacuation of Thousands of People
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 20, ARTSAKHPRESS: More than 700 firefighters supported by 11 helicopters and five aeroplanes are struggling to contain the fire, which began on Saturday near the town of Tejeda and is advancing on several fronts, propelled by a combination of high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity.
The head of the Canary Islands government, Ángel Víctor Torres, described the blaze as voracious and an environmental disaster, and said it had been “neither contained nor controlled”.
The head of the local emergency services, Federico Grillo, said the fire’s main front was “impossible to extinguish” and that firefighting efforts were concentrated on containing the right-hand flank, where there are a large number of homes. The left-hand side had been stabilised, he said.
He said the front was vast and that “whatever we do in the west, depends on the east, which could send the flames back and reignite what we have extinguished”.
Local officials have asked central government and the Red Cross for as many as 600 beds to accommodate people displaced from their homes. Those remaining at home have been told to stay away from their windows as the heat may cause the glass to explode.