Secret Tenerife: Tenerife Fire: News from Masca

Tenerife Fire: News from Masca

The center of Masca village.Masca, they tell us, is the second most visited place in Tenerife, after the Teide National Park and that the tiny village - home to just 140 people - sees something in the region of 800,000 visitors per year.

Being familiar to so many, it's no surprise then that over the last few days, I've received lots of emails asking about the fire, among them questions about Masca and, in particular, one asks, "Please tell me how bad Masca is after the fire."

Visitors aren't the only people asking. Local postal services yesterday wanted to know if they are able to get over to Masca as the roads had been closed for a few days. Whom do they ask: the security forces, the town hall? Nope, that ever reliable source of local knowledge (apparently), me! :)

But news has been slow and I've been unable to find much out until now and, while even one lost home is still one lost home too many, it seems that the situation in Masca may not be as bad as was first thought.

Oh, this morning I saw the Masca bus (the 355 route between Buenavista del Norte and Santiago del Teide) go up the road and, by coincidence, I also saw it come back down again. The time between the two sightings led me to believe that the road must have been open and it was able to get through.

Finally, a couple of articles I've found today give us some more details.

The upper part of Masca.This article, which confirms that the road is open also states that the mayor of Buenavista, Aurelio Abreu, "has expressed his desire" that only those people who live there or need to be in the area for urgent necessity, such as those assessing the damage, use the road for now.

For the time being then, I shall not be able to go to Masca to look or to confirm any details for myself.

The article also says that the Barranco de Masca - the gorge which leads down to the sea at Masca Bay and that is very popular amongst the active type of visitor for the difficult 3 hour walk - will remain closed to the public for "various" days, because of damage in the upper part of the route.

The town hall are sending a civil servant and setting up an office in the village to attend to the needs of those whose homes were affected.

An article in La Opinión (La sabiduría de un pueblo en Masca) praises the wisdom of the people of Masca, who when they saw the fire coming over the Cumbres del Bolico (Bolico Peaks), left everything and got the hell out of there before they might have become trapped by the flames.

That article explains more about what did happen - anyone who knows or has visited Masca will know how it sits, suspended almost, between the Teno Massif on one side and the Los Gigantes cliffs on the other.

Smoke had got down into the Masca valley by afternoon, says the article (this must have been the afternoon of Tuesday, July 31st); the wind was blowing and gusting strongly (up to 70 kmph), while the fire was "doing its own thing" in Santiago del Teide and had started to climb upwards on the south face of the mountains from Erjos. At 4:45 the mayor rang someone in Masca to say that things were going to get "complicated," which is when the inhabitants began to leave before the valley became a death trap.

The problem with the wind, we are told, is that turbulence meant that helicopters couldn't be used in the area, so tight within the valley walls around it. The palm trees acted like torches and, as the fronds burnt and broke off, so the gusts of wind took them where they will, catching anything dry and flammable alight and causing various fires all around the valley.

However ... That same haphazard pattern also meant that the majority of the houses in Masca were saved. Those homes that did burn - they list 6 homes destroyed, amongst whose owners is the Collins family - burnt completely, while other houses, right next door didn't burn at all.

No comfort for those who have lost everything, but for the village and its livelihood from tourism in general, things could have been a LOT worse.

This video seems to confirm that extent of damage, though I am sure people will underrate the importance also of the loss of shrub cover (it prevents erosion) and some of those beautiful palm trees themselves:

Video: Forest Fire Tenerife Aftermath Masca

(Regular readers know that my "pet hate" is hanging cables, so I just couldn't help picking up on the caption below the photo that is with the La Opinión article, which reads, "Panorama of part of the small village of Masca, with the public lighting switched on as it was on the day of the fire, which did not fail because the cables are laid underground.")