Canary Islands - Arsonists at large in biggest ever fires.

Article by John McGinty

Tuesday 31st July 2007, 23:21

More than five people have been arrested in the Canary Islands accused of starting the devastating forest fires that have ravaged though Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Gomera and Palma.

A 37-year-old forest ranger was arrested on Saturday after he allegedly confessed to having started the initial fire on Gran Canaria.

Juan Armas was in Police custody after he admitted that he had started the fires because of his recent dismissal from his job.

In another incident, a man on Tenerife was also arrested on suspicion of causing fires with intent to kill or maim and two men were also arrested in La Gomera after being caught lighting fires in a remote area.

The Canary Islands were raging out of control yesterday where tens of thousands of British tourists are spending their summer holidays.

People were evacuated from their homes and more than 13,000 residents were left homeless by the blaze.

The Spanish Islands are in a state of emergency and the Spanish Government said that the situation was extremely alarming.

Spain is sending in military support and hundreds of additional personnel from the mainland to fight the blazes, along with several extra helicopters. The British Embassy in Madrid said that six British residents were among those evacuated, but it had received no reports of injuries.

More than 33,000 hectares (81,500 acres) of forest have been consumed by flames — something that the authorities said was unprecedented.

Dozens of homes burnt to the ground in the southwest village of Mogán, in one of the worst affected areas on Grand Canary. Evacuated residents were put up in sport centres or churches.

Fires devastated large parts of the famous wildlife park, Palmitos Park. Situated in the south of Grand Canary. Many of the animals including reptiles, parrots, orangutans and a Komodo dragon, are thought to have died. An official said that many rare birds were released before the flames engulfed the park.  

One, Claudia, told El País newspaper from El Molino de Viento: “We are shut in at home. We don’t have any TV or radio because all the area’s antennas have burnt down. We can see a lot of smoke from here but can only hope the flames to not reach us.”

Temperatures topping 40C (104F) have made the undergrowth highly flammable, and high winds have been fanning the flames.

Metereologists said a blast of hot and dry air from Africa had moved over the islands, creating uniquely flammable conditions.

So far, tourist resorts have remained largely unaffected. The majority of the fires in Tenerife are in the north of the island, away from the packed beaches in the south. Flights were also landing normally, despite plumes of thick smoke blanketing parts of the isles. But there was concern that some fires in Tenerife were moving south.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that visitors should contact their tour operators. These said that there was no reason for people to cancel their holidays. They would face the usual penalties if they did so. Graham Lancaster, spokesman for the Federation of Tour Operators, said: “We are reassured that there’s no threat to tourists. There is no advice from the emergency services or police for tourists to move.”

A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook, which takes 90,000 Britons a year to the Canaries, said: “At the moment we haven’t had any cancellations in the Canaries.” Most of their resorts were located away from the flames.

Nevertheless, the authorities were worried that the economy could be hit during the peak tourist season.

The British Embassy calculates that nearly four million Britons visit the islands each year, and 60,000 live there.

Paulino Rivero, the president of the Canary Islands’ government, said that it had not been possible to use helicopters to douse the flames in many mountainous areas, where winds and temperatures have been too high.

 

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