Firefighters Battle Out-of-Control Wildfire in Gran Canaria

An out-of-control wildfire continued to rage in the Spanish island of Gran Canaria and had reached over 3,400 hectares in size on Sunday, August 18, local media said, citing officials. Over 5,000 people had been evacuated from 40 towns in the municipalities of Valleseco, Moya, Gáldar, Agaete, San Mateo, Artenara and Tejeda, with more evacuations expected, President of the Canary Islands Ángel Víctor Torres said in a press conference. The land and aerial resources used in combatting the fire were the largest ever deployed for a blaze in the Canary Islands, the president said. This footage, filmed by the Spanish Military Emergencies Unit (Unidad Militar de Emergencias) and uploaded to Twitter, shows firefighters battling a blaze at Lanzarote on August 18, while the second video shows emergency services working on a fire at Tejeda, on August 17. Credit: Unidad Militar de Emergencias via Storyful