The Tenerife fire is still burning and now affecting the nature life

The forest fire which is still burning on Tenerife and has been Sunday afternoon is starting to threaten areas of outstanding natural beauty and of great importance for the biodiversity of the zone. The fire is affecting shrub and pine in the south of the island, and threatens important areas of Canary Pine which form part of the forest canopy. The SEO/BirdLife ecologist group has described the fire s ‘very worrying’ as the area also holds important populations of species and sub-species of endemic birds. Some ZEPA Special Bird Protections Zones have been affected by the fire which, in the best scenario, will see the birds’ habitat partially lost. The first fire broke out in the municipality of Adeje in the south of the island of Tenerife, was upgraded on Sunday night to level II. The fire had started at 1305 Sunday afternoon in an area of orchards in Vilaflor. Several homes have been evacuated in Ifonche, La Quinta and Taucho, and group of hikers were evacuated from the Barrando del Infierno. Four helicopters are being used with fire-fighters on the ground helped out by forest brigades, the Canaries land GES, with the Canary Police, Local Police, Protection Civil and the Guardia Civil. This morning the village of Tijoco Alto has also been evacuated as the fire is still out of control. There is concern as the fire advances to el Teide mountain. The Canary Islands councillor for the Economy, Hacienda and Safety, Javier González Ortiz, made the level II declaration which means there is a need to bring in help from the General Administration of the State. The President of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Ricardo Melchoir, said today that this morning they hoped to control the fire, but the situation had not worsened but neither had it improved. The fire has two fronts, although one of them is blocked, and has so far affected 1,800 hectares, and actually burnt between 40 and 50% of that – some 900 hectares. Temperatures of 35 degrees and 30km/h winds, as well as access difficulties are all acting against the work of the fire-fighters. Meanwhile there has been another fire in La Palma where some homes have been evacuated and in Cuenca on the mainland another fire in burning with three centres.