A change in weather has helped Spain's firefighters slow the advance of raging wildfires on the Canary Island of La Palma. Nine helicopters and two airplanes were deployed to fight the blaze.
Spain, like much of Europe, is facing a heat waveImage: Courtesy of Nasa Worldview/REUTERS
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Favorable weather conditions have allowed firefighters on the Spanish island of La Palma to slow the advance of wildfires that forced thousands of people to evacuate Saturday.
More than 4,000 people were told to evacuate, authorities said, and at least 20 houses were destroyed.
"There has been some resistance by local people to leaving their homes, but I appeal to people to be responsible," Fernando Clavijo, the regional president of the Canary Islands, told reporters.
The fire is on a hilly terrain dotted with homesImage: STRINGER/AFP
Clavijo also said the fire "advanced very quickly" due to "the wind, the climate conditions as well as the heat wave that we are living through." Like the Spanish mainland, La Palma has also seen far less rain than usual over the past several years as a result of climate change.
So far, about 4,600 hectares or 11,300 acres of land have been destroyed by the fire, authorities said.
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Firefighters battle to put out blaze
Spain's army has deployed some 300 of its firefighters to help local crews battle the blaze. The military has dispatched nine water-carrying helicopters and two airplanes to the scene.
On Sunday, 86 members of Spain's Military Emergency Unity also arrived on the island.
The fire is on the western side of the island on wooded, hilly terrain dotted with homes.
La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight members of Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off Africa’s western coast. In 2021, it was hit by a volcanic eruption that lasted around three months, forcing thousands to evacuate and causing around €900 million ($1.01 billion) of damage.
Spain: La Palma volcano erupts — in pictures
A volcano has erupted on La Palma, the fifth-largest of Spain's Canary Islands, after several days of earth tremors.
Image: Borja Suarez/REUTERS
Volcano ejects red-hot lava
Sunday's eruption on La Palma sent jets of lava and a plume of smoke and ash into the air from the Cumbre Vieja National Park. La Palma is the fifth-largest of Spain's Canary Islands, which sit in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Morocco.
Image: Borja Suarez/REUTERS
Watching closely
Huge red plumes topped with black-and-white smoke shot out along a volcanic ridge that scientists had been closely watching after heightened seismic activity on La Palma for days.
Image: Borja Suarez/REUTERS
5 cracks identified so far
A volcanologist told Spanish TV shortly after the eruption that there appeared to be five fissures in the volcano and at least two of them were spewing hot lava.
Image: Carlota Manuela Martin Fuentes/AP/picture alliance
Residents ordered to leave
More than 1,000 people whose homes are located close to the eruption zone were evacuated. Authorities asked the public to pack a small bag, their cellphone and identity documents in case they needed to leave at short notice.
Image: Jonathan Rodriguez/AP/picture alliance
Drones used to monitor eruption
Scientists counted 22,000 tremors in the space of a week around Cumbre Vieja, ahead of the eruption. The team from the Geological Mining Institute of Spain used drones to monitor seismic activity.
Image: Borja Suarez/REUTERS
Quiet for 50 years
Cumbre Vieja is a mountain range and a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971, when one man was killed as he took photographs near the lava flows.
Image: Juan Carlos Cantero/imago images
8 eruptions in 550 years
La Palma has several volcanic craters, including San Antonio (pictured) but only Cumbre Vieja is active. The volcano has erupted eight times since Spanish records began in the 15th century. Along with Tenerife, La Palma is the most volcanically active of the Canary Islands.
Image: Borja Suarez/REUTERS
La Palma from space
A satellite image of La Palma shows the huge Caldera de Taburiente crater to the north. The Cumbre Vieja mountain range can be seen in the south and is where all recorded volcanic eruptions have occurred. La Palma is home to 83,000 people and, unlike the other Canary Islands, is not one of the popular tourist destinations.
Image: NASA
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Patricia Sanchez of the Spanish Red Cross told AFP news agency she felt "powerless" in knowing that "there are people who lost everything because of the volcano and have rebuilt their lives in the north, and now they are evacuated again... and risk losing everything again."
The wildfire on La Palma coincides with blistering heat that has swept southern European countries, as scientists warn climate change could significantly increase wildfires across the globe.
