19 August 2023 , 21:18
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Thousands of people in Tenerife, including Brit tourists, have been forced to evacuate after a fourth day of wildfires.
People on the Spanish Canary Islands have had to flee their homes to escape the "out of control" blazes amid rising temperatures.
Government officials declared around 4,000 people had to be evacuated on Saturday in addition to 4,500 people the day before being forced out of harm's way.
The Canary Islands have been suffering a drought the past few years, just like most of mainland Spain, with the islands recording below-average rainfall in recent years due to climate change impacting weather patterns.
Firefighters have been tackling the blaze for four days (ASSOCIATED PRESS)The fires come as a heatwave is expected to hit the nation. Spain's national weather service issued a warning to people earlier today about rising temperatures in the coming days, the Express reports.
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Emergency services for the Canary Islands believe the number of evacuees could surpass 26,000 and the service said all those people who needed somewhere to take refuge would be directed to shelters.
The regional government believes the fire "is beyond our capacity to extinguish it” due to hot and dry conditions and high winds which have fanned the huge flames.
The blaze started in part of the island's mountains (AP)After it was revealed there had been no injuries reported since the blaze broke out on Tuesday, island governor Rosa Dasilva said: "We have never seen a fire of this dimension on the Canary Islands."
More than 260 firefighters have battled the flames with the help of 19 aircrafts, which included units from the country's mainland, with more reinforcements on the way.
The fire broke out on a steep mountain which is populated with pine trees, which has made it difficult for firefighters to make their way to the devastated area. The regional chief of the archipelago, Fernando Clavijo, said that police are investigating the cause of the fire.
Residents and tourists on the island have been evacuated to shelters (AP)More than 2,000 people were evacuated in a wildfire on the nearby La Palma island last month which affected around 4,500 hectares of land.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System, Spain heads the list of EU countries affected by wildfires so far this year, with 75,000 hectares (185,000 acres) burned, ahead of Italy and Greece. Spain accounted for almost 40 percent of the nearly 800,00 hectares (two million acres) burned in the European Union in 2022, the EU agency said.