Many residents will remember the dreadful fires that destroyed large parts of Tenerife last year. At the time and for many weeks afterwards, everyone saluted our voluntary and professional firefighters that spent hours saving huge areas of our island. However, what people may not realise that our bomberos spend many hours extinguishing day to day fires, and helping in traffic accidents without any praise or recognition.
Last week, the mostly volunteer services had to attend a house fire. Adeje volunteers were required to attend to a fire at a terraced house in a housing estate built, but uninhabited. Firefighters put out the fire which was found in a bathtub in one of the townhouses.
Another house fire, this time in Granadilla, also required the services of the bomberos. The Saturday afternoon fire in San Miguel de Abona, called for Guayota volunteers to intervene in a fire in El Medano. The fire had broken out in the kitchen and was successfully extinguished.
Also on the Saturday afternoon, firefighters based in the Park of Santa Cruz de Tenerife were called to attend a warehouse where smoke was spotted coming from a recent shipment of fruit and vegetables. It transpired the smoke came from batteries in a light that had been left on.
La Orotava firefighters were also called to a hotel in Puerto de la Cruz which had reported a fire in the kitchen. A deep fat fryer had caught fire causing the power at the hotel to be disconnected. No injuries were reported.
Also on Sunday, a person had to be rescued after getting into difficulties in a natural pool in Jaca, Arico. The natural spring water pool had to be emptied to enable firefighters, with the assistance of a medical helicopter, the civil guard and the Canario emergency services, to manage the rescue.
In the midst of dealing with fires, firefighters were called to attend to various car accidents. San Miguel de Abona Park firefighters helped with the release of a driver of a vehicle that was involved in a traffic accident on the TF-1 motorway, in Las Chafiras, Arona. In the early hours of Sunday, professional and volunteer firefighters from La Laguna were required by Civil Guard officers to intervene in a traffic accident which took place in the TF-24, between La Laguna and El Portillo road, in which the vehicle hanging on the edge of a slope.
Whilst all of these incidents pale in comparison with the forest fires of 2012, this is a very small selection of what they had to deal with in just two days, it is worth remembering that we rely on them on a day to day basis and don’t always appreciate their efforts.
The above article was first published in Tenerife Weekly however I took the photos from the Calendario de los Bomberos de Tenerife 2010
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Filed under: News and Views Tagged: South Tenerife, Tenerife Daily News