The fire that broke out yesterday afternoon at the Zonzamas landfill site has been classed as “under control” by the Lanzarote Emergency Consortium, who successfully managed to extinguish the flames earlier today as reported by the emergency services on their "X" account.
Despite the successful containment, the situation is still being closely monitored as the fire is under control but not fully extinguished, and necessary measures will be taken based on its development.
In response to the severity of the fire, the Canary Islands Government activated the Territorial Emergency Plan for Civil Protection (Plateca) in a state of "alert" late last night (Monday), and all available firefighting resources on the island were mobilised to tackle the blaze.
The Lanzarote Emergency Consortium were supported overnight by various Civil Protection and emergency services from various municipalities and the Cabildo, using around 200,000 litres of water and several dozen tons of sand to control the fire, without it being necessary to use aerial means.
The president of the Lanzarote Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, said in a press conference that the main warehouse as well as the gas and diesel boilers have been saved.
He went on to explain that the fire started just after 7:00pm on Monday, and although it began as a "very controlled" fire, the "strong wind" moved the ash "300 or 350 metres towards the boiler", and the flames reached "the part where the material is collected, which is highly flammable material."
From there, the Lanzarote firefighters began to define the perimeter to start the containment process and the wind changed during the night making their job easier.
He warned that the fire will still take days to completely extinguish by continually watering the affected area to cool it and using more sand to smother it.