Burning stubble in a heatwave is not a good idea

On Tuesday evening, the fire that had been raging since Saturday on the neighbouring island of La Gomera, had been brought under control (after a drop in both the temperature and wind speed). Meanwhile, in La Orotava, Tenerife on Tuesday afternoon, some 2,500 square meters of land had been burnt, after another fire was started by someone burning off stubble on farmland.

Some 800 hectares of land were affected by the La Gomera fire finally, which is a big enough ecological disaster that will, of course, take time to recover.

That's as well as losses to agriculture, farming, livestock and livelihoods ...

It is sad for visitors too who actually care about the beauty, nature and ecology of these fragile islands, that they will have to witness yet more palm trees with charred black trunks and "army regulation" haircuts, while they grown back.

A couple of reports suggest that the fire in Hermigua, Gomera was started by someone burning stubble / scrub and, that there has been an arrest. For what purpose, I have no idea, since despite the weather (which should logically have told anyone it was not a great idea), there had been no prohibition decreed and it is the season for it, probably has been since medieval times.

It just isn't the season for this kind of record heatwave.

Just to confuse matters, however, an earlier report had said that the fire in Hermigua was started by a spark from someone doing some welding.

Whichever, one Gomera resident echoed what I had said earlier: that much of the reason these fires spread is the amount of abandoned agricultural land, overgrown with easy burning dry scrub that surrounds rural homes.

In Vallehermoso, the fire had been caused by friction between electrical cables and, in response, President of La Gomera's Island Corporation, Casimiro Curbelo, says he will require electricity company, UNELCO, to substitute all of the above ground cables on the island. It was high time someone stood up to UNELCO over this and I wish him luck, because UNELCO won't want to spend the money.

President of Tenerife's Island Corporation, Ricardo Melchior, meanwhile says that in more than half the cases - where fires are started intentionally, like the fire in Tenerife last year - they know who did it, but they have to catch them red handed, because the legislation does not permit them to act against them.

As Francisco says here, islands like these, with so much similar forestry reserve, need many more permanent resources to combat things like this.

If you ask me, I think it needs a whole new approach.

At least temperatures have gone back to normal for the time of year today.