A small rock in the Atlantic

The La Palma Fire from Space

NASA image of the La Palma fire on Sunday

I was going to have a break from blogging for a couple of days, but I couldn't resist this photo, taken from a NASA satellite on Sunday August 2nd. The island downwind of La Palma is La Gomera, 50 km away.

I think it must have been early on Sunday afternoon: the fire in the west is out, and the clouds are just about to arrive.

It looked spectacular from underneath, but not as spectacular as this.

Labels: fire, La Palma, NASA, satellite photo

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Yippee! The Fire's Under Control

The island government has just announced that the fire's under control.

"Under control" isn't quite the same as "out". It means the mountainside is still smouldering, and they have to put out the embers before the wind gets up. But with this weather, it really ought to be ok.

And apologies of you tried to access this site yesterday evening. The domain providers in the USA had a power cut which took out all their servers. As you can see, it's all up and running again.

Labels: fire, fuencaliente, La Palma, Mazo

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The Damage in Fuencaliente

Burnt House in Fuencaliente, La Palma

My first impression of Los Canarios, the main village in Fuencaliente, is that it's a heck of a lot better than I expected. The fire damage is very fluky, presumably because the fire moved so fast and the gusts of wind kept changing direction. As you can see, sometimes a house got burnt out completely, and its neighbours untouched, or the top floor burned, and the bottom floor looks fine, or one half of a semi-detached looks totalled, and the other half looks OK.

Burnt House in Fuencaliente, La Palma

Most of the badly damaged buildings I saw had people working in them already. Presumably the owners have already gone through swearing and crying, and they're already getting on with it. I was impressed.

The Princess Hotel, La Palma

From a distance at least, the Princess Hotel looks fine and dandy. Most buildings look OK, and most shops are open. And the beautiful old church is fine.

A car repair workshop, Los Canarios, Fuencaliente, La Palma

A car repair workshop, Los Canarios, Fuencaliente, La Palma

Car workshop, Los Canarios, Fuencaliente

I don't think this car workshop will bother to fix the cars outside it now. On the other hand, I was amazed to see this small survivor just outside the big petrol station.

A lizard that somehow survived

Labels: fire, fuencaliente, La Palma

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La Palma's still burning

Helicopter dropping water on the fire on La Palma

Helicopter dropping water on the fire at Tigalate, on La Palma

The fire on La Palma is still burning, but it's a lot smaller, and a lot farther up the mountain and away from houses. Hopefully, now that all the helicopters and both planes are dumping water on the same place, it'll be sorted out soon.

Smouldering forest, Mazo, La Palma

Meanwhile there are acres and acres of smouldering forest, and people trying to get the fire completely out.

Mop up operatons in Fuencaliente, La Palma

Mop up operatons in Fuencaliente, La Palma

Mop up operations in Fuencaliente, La Palma

Labels: fire, fuencaliente, La Palma, Mazo

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UPdate: It's still not out

I've just caught the local news. They was no mention of the fire on the west side, and I'm really hoping that no news is good news. The fire on the east side is still burning, still near Tigalate, but they hope to have it under control this morning. Certainly the weather's much better, and if all 500 fire fighters are working on one fire, it should really help.

The footage of Fuencaliente was really depressing They say "at least 80" houses have been destroyed.

I'll try to find out more.

Labels: fire, La Palma

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Here in Breña Baja, it's now 25ºC with a light breeze and the sky is cloudy. It's hard to be sure, but it looks like all cloud and little or no smoke. The local TV channels are showing soap operas again, instead of continuous news.

I just saw the two amphibious planes leaving the airport, and they seemed to be heading over the ridge towards the west of the island.

So I can't be sure, but I think the fire this side is controlled.

And my friend the other side of the island says she isn't sure what's happening either, but there's a heck of a lot less smoke than yesterday.

So there's a real chance the nightmare is almost over.

Labels: fire, La Palma

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The eastern fire just north of Tigalate, La Palma

The fire on the east of La Palma has almost gone around in a circle. I took these pictures just north of Tigalate.

The second one shows one of the amphibious planes from Seville in action. I believe they hold 4,500 litres of water at one go.

Amphibious fire-fighting plane at Tigalate, La Palma

I have no more news from the west of the island, but when I went to Tigalate, the temperature was 32ªc and gust of a stiff breeze. This isn't good weather for fire-fighting, but it's miles better than yesterday's 40ºC and gust of up to 70 km/h.
Map of the fire on La Palma

Labels: fire, La Palma, Mazo

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Another Update on the Fire on La Palma

Hallelujah, the wind's dropped! The temperatures have dropped too, although it's still hot.

We now have 500 firemen fighting this fire, but the losses are mounting. Up to 2,000 hectares -- including 90% of Fuencaliente -- and a dozen houses have burnt. Worse, a man from Fuencaliente has died of a heart attack.

One of the three fires is out.

The second, in the east side of the island moved slowly north. They had it controlled, but the wind got up and it broke out again. Now it's almost back where it started, at Tigalate. At least it headed towards the coast and away from the houses.

And the big one, on the west, headed towards El Paso - (the municipality, not the town). As far as I can gather, they're using hte lava flows as fire breaks, and it's still near Santa Cecilia.

The fire at Icod on Tenerife is "controlled". The fire at Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera is out, after burning 24 hectares.

Labels: fire, La Palma

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Photos of the fire

All photos by Nikki Batley

And we now have a fire-fighting unit from Seville come to help. We need them. The "controlled" part of the fire on the east side of the island has apparently revived, and more people have been evacuated from Montes de la Luna.
The fire in Fuencaliente

I think the lava flow in the foreground must be the one they're hoping to use as a natural fire break.

The fire in Fuencaliente

Labels: fire, La Palma

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Update on the Fire

The fire started at Tigalate, and the main area of concern is currently between Santa Cecilia and Jeday

Well I got one thing wrong in the last post. There was a light breeze here, but up on the ridge where they were fighting the fire, it was blowing a gale up to 65 km/h - exactly the worst sort of weather for fire-fighting.

However, I was right that the Princess Hotel and Cancajos are safe. In fact that's where they took the evacuees. About 100 are still in the Princess, and 115 in the army barracks at Cancajos. The rest are staying with friends and family.

So far, about 1,500 hectares have been burnt - mostly pine forest. If you were planning on walking or mountain biking in the south of the island - well it won't be so pretty (although it will recover). So far, the north of the island is fine.

And now the good news. The wind has dropped, and the weather forecast is for the temperatures to drop 10-15ºC within 24-48 hours. At the moment, they're trying to use the lava flows at Jeday and Pista de Los Cabritos as natural fire breaks, and to hold it there, or at least have a much smaller front to the fire. We now have helicopters from Tenerife and Gran Canaria helping out, and two planes are on their way from the mainland.

Labels: fire, fuencaliente, La Palma, Mazo

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Forest Fire on La Palma

A forest fire is blazing in the south of La Palma, on the boarders of Mazo and Fuencaliente. It started at 11 pm on Friday at Puente Roto. So far, nobody knows for certain what caused it, but the rumour is is that it was fireworks.

We've had hot weather caused by wind coming from the Sahara (calima) for weeks, and the hillsides are dry as a tinder box. It would take a pretty stupid person to let off fireworks at the moment. The only good bit is that the wind is pretty light and the army's been called in.

They've evacuated the villages of Los Canarios and Las Caletas in Fuencaliente, and Tigalate and Montes de la Luna in Mazo, some 4,000 people altogether.

Although the Princess hotel is in Fuencaliente, it's the other side of the ridge from the fire, and doesn't have forest near it anyway. Cancajos is also safe.

You don't need to cancel your holiday. But please, be very, very careful with cigarete butts and barbecues.

Labels: canary island forests, fire, La Palma