Police have been able to confirm that the wildfire on Spain's tourist island of Tenerife, the largest island of the Canary Islands, was started deliberately.
Canary Island regional President Fernando Clavijo said on Sunday that investigations into the cause of the fire have been able to determine that someone started the blaze on purpose but there have not been any arrests made, according to CTV.
The blaze has caused more than 26,000 residents to evacuate the island in Spain as of Saturday. Officials in the Canary Islands have called it the most complicated fire in 40 years.
The fires started on Tuesday and caused around 4,500 people to evacuate by Friday. Evacuations skyrocketed on Saturday as the fire grew, burning 29,000 acres of land.
The blaze comes amidst a heat wave and drought in the last several weeks that have left the vegetation dry.
In a news conference, Tenerife Governor Rosa Davila said as of Monday the progress made Sunday night on the fire, although "very difficult" has turned out to be "very positive."
No fatalities or injuries have been reported as of yet and firefighters have been able to protect the homes of residents.
Although the fire has not devastated homes yet, air quality has been greatly affected and the fire is still threatening 11 towns.
Over 400 firefighters and 23 water-carrying helicopters and planes have been fighting the blaze, said to be the worst in decades. In 2022, Spain had nearly 40 percent of all wildfires in the European Union.
The fires come amidst others happening around the globe in places such the United States, Canada, and other countries in Europe.
Many in corporate media have claimed that the seemingly constant reports of more fires and other disastrous weather events are evidence of the worsening effects of climate change.
President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center Bjorn Lomborg disagrees, citing data saying that since the "early 2000s when 3% of the world’s land caught fire, the area burned annually has trended downward."
NASA made a report in 2017 recording a "drop in global fires" of "24 percent between 1998 and 2015."
