The wildfires that have ravaged the Spanish tourist island of Tenerife were a result of arson, a local official has admitted despite the persistent media narratives blaming climate change for the fires.
On Sunday, Canary Islands regional President Fernando Clavijo confirmed that the wildfires on the island of Tenerife were started deliberately, adding that police currently have three open investigations to apprehend the arsonist or arsonists involved in setting the fires.
“They not only endanger their lives but also those of the people who have to rescue them,” Clavijo is quoted as saying by el Diario.
According to Tenerife governor Rosa Dávila, some 12,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and hotels since the fire broke out on Tuesday. As of Saturday, over 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of forest have been burned on the island, however, this figure is likely to have increased by Sunday, Dávila said.
Thankfully, no one has been injured as a result of the man-made fires, and firefighters have so far successfully prevented the fires from burning any houses, though the fires are continuing to threaten to spread to 11 towns.
Despite the admission of arson, the supposedly politically-neutral Associated Press news wire service highlighted the supposed role of climate change in the fires, claiming — without providing evidence — that the droughts experienced over the past few years on the Canary Islands were a result of “changing weather patterns impacted by climate change.”
The fires in Tenerife are far from the only to be suspected as a result of arson, with Greek Climate Change Minister Vassilis Kikilias admitting last month that the majority of wildfires seen across the country this summer “were caused by human hand”.
In nearby Italy, police drone footage taken in the Calabria region last month showed a man apparently attempting to spark a wildfire. In an effort to combat the scourge of arsonists, the local governor established a special task force, including a fleet of police drones to patrol for people starting fires intentionally.
Greek newspaper Kathimerini has previously noted that laws surrounding arson may be failing to act as a deterrent, given that most arsonists are tried with “negligence” because it is difficult to prove that the fires were started intentionally.
Therefore, in Greece, the paper said, arsonists “tend to get away with small sentences, rarely serve any prison time and face no other penalty for the terrible destruction they cause.”