The Civil Guard is investigating whether the fire declared this Sunday next to the Bosquecillo de Haría and which the firefighters of the Security and Emergency Consortium took more than six hours to extinguish was intentional.
As confirmed by the Benemérita, which participated coordinating the different emergency bodies and road closures during the fire extinguishing, Seprona agents have traveled this Monday morning to the burned area to carry out an ocular inspection and determine if there is any indication of a crime.
"It was a day that many people passed by there and we don't know if it was intentional," said the mayor of Haría, Alfredo Villalba, who has also made "an appeal to the population to be careful in these sensitive areas." "Because although we don't have large expanses of vegetation, there is a lot of pasture," he pointed out.
The mayor of Haría demands a fire brigade detail in the north
In addition, although he stressed that "luckily" the fire was "controlled quickly" thanks to the "large number of personnel and resources", Villalba insisted on the need to have a fire brigade detail in the north of the island.
"We cannot complain about the number of personnel that were deployed, because all the resources were used, but it is true that there are times that can be reduced considerably and that when attacking the fire it could have been done more quickly if we had a detail in the northern area," said Villalba, stating that it is something that the City Council is already working on.
"Not only the issue of firefighters, but also that the north has a 24-hour medical ambulance. These are basic services that we have to have because the population is quite important and we also have a population center like La Graciosa nearby that also has a significant passenger movement," he added.
"We were very worried"
It should be remembered that 16 firefighters from the Security and Emergency Consortium participated in the extinguishing work, who needed three fire engines and 45,000 liters of water to put out the fire. Civil Protection, Civil Guard, Emerlan and Local Police personnel intervened.
"At one point it seemed difficult to control, even the firefighters themselves said that they would be there all night to be able to control it, and we were very worried," acknowledged the mayor of Haría, who also explained that there is a house near where the fire occurred. "But the personnel present did not consider it necessary to evacuate because the wind changed," he said.
It was at 3:15 a.m. when the Security and Emergency Consortium declared the fire extinguished, which affected about 20,000 square meters of pasture and tree areas.