I’ve just caught the local news. They was no mention of the fire on the west side, and I’m really hoping that no news is good news. The fire on the east side is still burning, still near Tigalate, but they hope to have it under control this morning. Certainly the weather’s much better, and if all 500 fire fighters are working on one fire, it should really help. The…
Here in Breña Baja, it’s now 25ºC with a light breeze and the sky is cloudy. It’s hard to be sure, but it looks like all cloud and little or no smoke. The local TV channels are showing soap operas again, instead of continuous news. I just saw the two amphibious planes leaving the airport, and they seemed to be heading over the ridge towards the west of the island….
Hallelujah, the wind’s dropped! The temperatures have dropped too, although it’s still hot. We now have 500 firemen fighting this fire, but the losses are mounting. Up to 2,000 hectares — including 90% of Fuencaliente — and a dozen houses have burnt. Worse, a man from Fuencaliente has died of a heart attack. One of the three fires is out. The second, in the east side of the island moved…
And we now have a fire-fighting unit from Seville come to help. We need them. The “controlled” part of the fire on the east side of the island has apparently revived, and more people have been evacuated from Montes de la Luna. I think the lava flow in the foreground must be the one they’re hoping to use as a natural fire break.
The fire started at Tigalate, and the main area of concern is currently between Santa Cecilia and Jeday Well I got one thing wrong in the last post. There was a light breeze here, but up on the ridge where they were fighting the fire, it was blowing a gale up to 65 km/h – exactly the worst sort of weather for fire-fighting. However, I was right that the Princess…
A forest fire is blazing in the south of La Palma, on the boarders of Mazo and Fuencaliente. It started at 11 pm on Friday at Puente Roto. So far, nobody knows for certain what caused it, but the rumour is is that it was fireworks. We’ve had hot weather caused by wind coming from the Sahara (calima) for weeks, and the hillsides are dry as a tinder box. It…