Fire contained within perimeter for now, though strong winds continue to threaten Tejeda & Artenara

The forest fire raging in the the summits of the central municipalities of Artenara, Tejeda and Gáldar, on Gran Canaria, has been contained within a perimeter stretching 23 kilometres and has not yet spread beyond it as this black afternoon has worn on.  The brave firefighters who have battled from more than 30 hours straight have, for the moment managed to contain the area affected by the fire to within approximately 1,000 hectares, according to the president of the Canary Islands Government Ángel Víctor Torres this evening.

The main objective is that this can be maintained, said Torres reporting that “the work of the land and air troops around the perimeter area is being intensified by making trenches and moistening the area to try to prevent the fire from spreading during the night.”

As for the weather forecasts, the President of the Canary Islands stressed that an increase in wind speeds in the area is expected, with gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour being likely, which could complicate the evolution of the fire and the perimeter  zone”.

The most complicated area is the southern flank of the fire towards the Degollada de Tejeda, so a contingency plan is in place to be able to act in the event that this situation will worsen due to the weather and to deal with new evacuations if they are necessary.

“The objective at the moment” – stressed the president of the Canarian Executive – “is to maintain control, and work to prevent the spread of the fire.”

Regarding the number of people evacuated, Ángel Víctor Torres confirmed that almost a thousand people have been ordered to leave their homes in the area, but that only 60 are still being housed in the refuge shelters, provided for just such emergencies.

Finally, the President of the Government of the Canary Islands repeated gratitude to all personnel who are working on the extinction of the fire and stressed a complete ban on entering the zone or going up towards affected areas since this would put at risk the safety of firefighters and hinder the work of  troops deployed within the fire zone.