The wildfire still raging on the island of Tenerife, one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, is man-made and was started deliberately, Canary Islands regional President Fernando Clavijo confirmed to the Associated Press on Sunday, August 20th, based on the conclusions of the ongoing police investigation.
The perpetrators “put the lives of thousands of people and property at risk,” Clavijo said, adding that he hopes they will be found soon. The president stated that the police have opened three separate lines of investigation to locate the suspects behind the arson, but it’s unknown whether any arrests have been made so far.
The fire, described as the worst in Tenerife in four decades, began last Tuesday (August 15th) and has so far consumed over 11,600 hectares (29,000 acres) of pine forests and scrubland. Although it is spreading from the northeast of the island, far from the main tourist areas, the fire directly threatens 11 town areas and affects the air quality in a further eight, where residents have been told to stay indoors or wear masks when leaving their homes.
According to Tenerife Governor Rosa Dávila, over 12,000 people have been evacuated so far, including the residents of a state-run hotel in the Teide volcano national park in central Tenerife, 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the fire zone.
But thanks to the 400 firefighters and soldiers deployed to the area, complete with 23 extinguisher helicopters and planes, no houses have been burned and no injuries have been reported. The governor said that the worst has already passed and, if the weather does not intervene, the wildfire could be put out in the next few days.
Although the fire was started deliberately, the below-average rainfall in recent years and the regular August heatwave might have contributed to its rapid spread. Incidentally, Spain leads the chart of the European Forest Fire Information System for areas affected by wildfires this year, with some 75,000 hectares (185,000 acres) burned, ahead of Italy and Greece. Last year, Spain accounted for nearly 40% of the 800 thousand hectares burned in wildfires across the entire EU.
Currently, there is another major fire raging in Greece, the last of a long series of wildfires in the country this year. Only in the past several weeks, Greece registered close to 700 individual fires, the majority of which have been started by humans either by criminal intent or by negligence. The worst affected area was Rhodes, where the wildfire destroyed around 15% of the island’s surface area, prompting the evacuation of over 20,000 people.
In response, the Greek government announced on August 1st that it will increase the penalty for arson and negligence to ten times the current level, up to €50,000 in fines and 10 years in jail. “I am obliged to say that the next fire season will find us in a different position,” Greek Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said. “It’s not just the penalties—the fines will increase tenfold—but we need a … change in mentality.”