Recent fires in Valle Gran Rey

''Fears grow that Valley Gran Rey is target of an arsonist

June 12, 2019 by TenerifeNews

A shocking fire on picturesque La Gomera has reinforced a view that an arsonist could be at work in the municipality of Valle Gran Rey.

The blaze affected 20,000 square metres of land and led to the evacuation of several houses and three apartment complexes, some of them being used by tourists.

The authorities have praised the swift actions of the emer-gency services for controlling the fire before it spread even further. Fortunately, no-one was hurt and there was no damage to any properties.

However, there are fears that it was started on purpose and follows on from another fire a few weeks ago.

The Mayor, Angel Piñero voiced “his sincere gratitude, on behalf of residents and the corporation, for the effective-ness and predisposition of Civil Protection, volunteer firefigh-ters of Valle Gran Rey, the Environment Brigade of the Cabildo, the Police Local, Civil Guard and other groups that collaborated to stop the advance of the flames, as well as all citizens who helped and collaborated for hours.”

He added: “Valle Gran Rey is suffering sabotage and intentional arson for months. The Civil Guard will investi-gate the causes of this event, but what is clear is that the town does not deserve what is happening.”

The fire began during the night on the coast of Valle Gran Rey and affected an area of 20,000 square metres.

The flames were detected at 10pm (May 19th 2019, Ed.) in the place known by residents as Quiebracanilla, next to the road that leads to Playa del Inglés, about 200 metres from the coast. 

The head of the volunteer firemen of Valle Gran Rey, Guillermo Barroso said the fire “was very virulent” in the first hours, due to the existence of “strong gusts of wind”. 

At one stage, the flames threatened to spread towards the apartment complexes of El Guirre, Los Tarajales and El Cieno. Because of this, they were evacuated, together with several houses, and parked cars were removed.

The first fire was recorded in this municipality a few weeks ago at a private property (at the municipal recycling compound on April 30th, Ed.) in the area of El Altito. There has also been continuous sabotage carried out against the drinking water supply network during the last months. ''

And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of rubbish

This morning there's a large fire in the area behind the council's yard where refuse trucks and other machinery are parked in Valle Gran Rey. The blaze was consuming all the organic material and tree cuttings which the council stores there awaiting to be shredded for composting. The material collected there was set on fire illegally on several occasions over the past years . Today it appears it was arson again as the fire started long before daylight and the material was quite wet. Controlled burning of organic waste can be applied for and a professional fire crew will choose a date, direct the proceedings, and have a fire engine on standby. The fire was easily brought under control today as there was very little wind this morning and 8mm of rain fell in the area during the night, making it unlikely for the fire to spread. However, a thick cloud of smoke is hanging over lower Valle Gran Rey this Saturday morning with an unpleasant smell. 
The storage and chipping of the organic material and its composting is somewhat controversial here as a few farmers reckon that pests and plant diseases are spread that way, while other farmers want to spread the composted material on their fields, having seen the benefit to their crops in previous years.
Some good news: The barranco (usually dry riverbed) in Valle Gran Rey is running with a nice bit of water all the way down to the sea for the first time in a long time.

Smoke on the water...