A new and ferocious forest fire has been declared early this afternoon in the municipality of Valleseco, according to reports from the Cabildo de Gran Canaria.
The fire has started in the Los Pajaritos ravine, between Cueva Corcho and Crespo. Aircraft including the Russian Kamov32, from the Los Rodeos airport (Tenerife), have been deployed to the area.
The island of Gran Canaria is on orange alert for temperatures up to 37 degrees.
Last Saturday another forest fire broke out at the summit of Gran Canaria that affected about 1,500 hectares having burned for 3 days and 3 nights.
This latest blaze, it is feared, could easily jump to the Tejeda basin, where the last one was eventually brought under control. The new blaze is moving at incredible speed and can be seen from Valsequillo on the north east, and Agaete on the North West coast.
The Cabildo island government, have declared a level 2 emergency, on a scale of zero to three. The Canary Islands Government will now direct the work to fight the fire with which the Emergency Military Unit (UME) will assist.
In addition to the UME, the forest brigades of the Ministry of Agriculture, the forestry teams of the Canary Islands Government and at least one amphibious aircraft have also been mobilised. More than 220 people who are already working on extinguishing the fire, supported by eleven aircraft in total.
Several neighbourhoods of Tejeda evacuated
In addition, several neighborhoods of Tejeda, a town of 1,921 inhabitants, have had to be evacuated for the second time in a week, as a result of the forest fire that broke out last Saturday at the summit of Gran Canaria and that affected around 1,500 hectares before being brought under control.
Cruz de Tejeda has already been evacuated including the National Parador, and the residents of Rincon de Tejeda, but for the moment that preventive measure has not been extended to the urban areas of the main town of Tejeda.
The fire started in the ravine of Los Pajaritos, between Cueva Corcho and Crespo although, according to the Canary Islands Government, as of an hour ago the head of the fire had been controlled and work was centred on the flanks.
This fire has occurred on a day that the Canary Islands were already on alert due to the high risk of forest fires and high temperatures recorded this weekend on several islands, including Gran Canaria.
