Lanzarote firefighters have been working non-stop to help put out the fire in Tenerife since they moved to the island. To this day they continue with the extinction and collaboration work.
Last Wednesday, August 16, the firefighters "voluntarily" headed to Tenerife, says José Domingo Crespo, Head of the Lanzarote Fire Department to La Voz. They started in the afternoon with the first action that "was focused on the protection of the urban area", he says.
"The first intervention was to try to cover a road in the municipality of La Esperanza", he adds. To ensure that the fire "did not pass to the north zone", he says. An action "without success" since "there was no way to contain it", he says.
Later at night, as we already mentioned, they were moved to the town of Las Rosas, in the municipality of El Rosario, to offer protection in homes, which is called "preventive day", he says. The next day, last Thursday, August 17, they continued in the same area, in which they "managed to prevent the flames from going down", adds Crespo.
After these tasks, on Friday, August 18, "they sent us to some buildings belonging to the Cabildo de Tenerife to collaborate with Forest and Tenerife Firefighters", says the fire chief. "We worked late and night", since "the fire was already reaching the area", he asserts.
From Friday, "we had to go to rest", he says. Since Wednesday, "we had been without sleep for two nights", he says about the day. Then, "the first relief was made, they sent other firefighters from Lanzarote and we returned to the island", he points out.
"We had been without sleep for two nights with intense, long and quite hard days"
Once the relief was carried out, the colleagues "began to cover the areas of La Orotava, Victoria and Esperanza", says Crespo. To "provide coverage to the houses that are within the forest area", he adds. It should be noted that "several homes were saved in those areas", he says.
Last Monday, August 21, they made a new relief again. "It is used to make a new relief for the northern zone", he confirms. "They are going to refresh the places that the aerial means are in charge of extinguishing, specifically, the access roads to avoid retentions", he adds.
To learn a little more about their work in the fire, he tells us more in depth about their task. "We work mostly at night when the aerial means do not work". Regarding the number of personnel assigned to the aid, "we have been fourteen firefighters deployed from Lanzarote to Tenerife from Wednesday to Monday", he adds. In addition, "divided into groups of five to be able to coordinate".
"It is quite hard to try to prevent it from spreading and not succeeding"
He tells us about his experience in the fire and the sensations with which the team returns to Lanzarote. "It is quite hard to try to prevent it from spreading and not succeeding", he acknowledges. "Devastating" is the adjective he uses to describe the contact with the affected families, "seeing people badly when the flames threaten their homes and not being able to guarantee that the fire will not reach", he points out.
What hurts them the most is "not being able to reach where we would like", since "the fire does not stop on one side or the other", he confesses. In addition, "the days are intense, long and quite hard", he reveals about the day to day in the field. Despite the difficult experience, the chief tells us that "there is a lot of will and willingness to go and help there", on the part of the colleagues, "at the moment there are many who want to collaborate", he says.
He also provides information about the state in which the fire was these days ago. "We are told that the area where the fire started is controlled", he says. Although they are being less fortunate in the northern zone, "in which it remains uncontrolled and more when temperatures rise every day", he says.
"They have gone from eleven affected municipalities to twelve", he confirms. "It continues to advance without control, it has not improved", he concludes.
