Canary Island wildfire eases

Firefighters made progress yesterday against a wildfire on Spain’s Canary Island of La Gomera that has ravaged part of a rare nature reserve and forced out thousands of people, officials said.

“The drop in temperatures and the change in wind direction has caused the fire to advance slowly and as a result the work to extinguish it has had better results,” Canaries emergency services spokesman Carmina Lorenzo said.

Seven water-bombing planes and four helicopters were battling the blaze on the Atlantic island, which broke out more than a week ago and spread rapidly across the parched land due to sweltering temperatures and wind.

Emergency services evacuated 5,000 people because of the threat from the encroaching flames and smoke but all except 1,360 were allowed to return home on Tuesday.

The authorities allowed about 1,200 of the remaining evacuees to go back to their homes late yesterday.

The flames have ravaged more than 4,000 hectares of land so far, including hundreds in the Garajonay National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site that is home to rare, subtropical plants in the centre and north of La Gomera.