Out of control fire Powers Thousands to Empty in Canary Islands
Spanish firemen on Monday were engaging a fierce blaze that has seethed for three days on the lush slants of La Palma in the Canary Islands, briefly driving the departure of in excess of 4,000 occupants.
Local authorities said on Monday that more favorable weather conditions had helped firefighters slow down the advance of the blaze, and some residents were allowed to return to their homes.
“The weather has been helping us,” Sergio Rodríguez, the president of the local government council in La Palma, said in a news conference on Monday.
More than 500 firefighters were trying to bring the blaze under control, aided by several water-carrying helicopters making regular rounds over the flames in an attempt to douse them.
The fire on La Palma, a small island of the Canaries archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa, started in the early hours of Saturday in a wooded area dotted with houses. It quickly engulfed large parts of the hilly terrain, burning some 20 houses and buildings and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
“People come first, then the houses and then extinguishing” the fire, Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands regional government, told reporters on Saturday.
The wildfire is large enough that satellite shots taken by NASA showed plumes of smoke rising from the blaze in the northwestern part of the island.
Images shared by local security services showed white pillars of smoke advancing through the island’s mountains.
Read More ( Here )
© CopyRights RawNews1st
