Authorities in Tenerife have evacuated around 3,000 people from their homes overnight as a wildfire sparked by high temperatures and strong winds raged in a forest already ravaged by fire in August.
Emergency services said on X, formerly known as Twitter, they had requested assistance from the army’s Military Emergency Unit, citing the blaze, which ignited on Wednesday, as a high-level emergency.
Pictures posted on social media showed members of the fire service attempting to handle the fire, with a post saying around 90 members of the service had been deployed.
The blaze is centred on the towns of Santa Ursula and La Orotava in the mountainous northeast of the island, away from the main tourist areas in Tenerife’s southwest.
Both the island’s airports are still operational.
August’s wildfire burned for days, destroying around 37,000 acres of woodland within the national park surrounding the Mount Teide volcano, Spain’s highest peak.
Thousands were also evacuated then, with most returning to their homes.
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The Canary Islands regional leader, Fernando Clavijo, said on Thursday the August fire had been brought under control but was never completely extinguished, with embers still burning in the forest.
“There is less fuel (for the fire), so it shouldn’t get out of hand,” Mr Clavijo said, referring to the already scorched terrain.
The island, in the Atlantic off Africa’s northwestern coast, is on alert for high temperatures that are expected to reach 39C throughout Thursday.
