Aug
11
Stubbornly high temperatures of over 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit) have already ravaged some 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of land on La Gomera, since fires broke out last week. About one-tenth of the Garajonay national park, a UNESCO World Heritage site was affected.
“The fires are still burning on three fronts,” an emergency services spokesman said. “There is no positive change for the moment.”
Aircraft started dropping water again as blazes erupted anew in Garajonay, home to rare subtropical forests, which covered the Mediterranean region tens of millions of years ago but have now largely disappeared.
Several villages on La Gomera had to be evacuated, in neighboring Tenerife, 300 people had to move out of their homes in El Tanque.
In the northwestern mainland region of Galicia, people had to be evacuated from near Ourense.
Last Tuesday, officials said the fires in La Gomera had been contained. A fire last week in La Palma, which is next to La Gomera was brought under control on Friday. The blaze had affected about 1,700 hectares there.
It could take 30 to 40 years for Garajonay’s destroyed areas to recover.
Spain has seen more forest fires this summer than at any time in the last decade, around 131,000 hectares of land have been destroyed following the driest winter in 70 years. On top of that, the month of July was much drier than usual, with only half the average amount of rainfall.
Greek firefighters were also battling the flames near Mount Athos, another UN heritage site. The community of monasteries there – deemed the oldest in the world – is not believed to be affected.
ng/jlw (AFP, dpa)
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.