New wildfire on Spain’s Tenerife island forces 3,000 evacuations. Area suffered major summer fire

MADRID (AP) — Officials say firefighters are battling to control a new wildfire on Spain’s Tenerife island that has forced some 3,000 people to leave their homes for safety. The blaze, which started Wednesday, is centered on the towns of Santa Úrsula and La Orotava in the mountainous northeast of the island, away from the main tourist areas in Tenerife’s southwest. The same area suffered one of the island’s worst wildfires in decades in August when 35,000 acres of pine forest and scrubland were burnt and some 12,000 residents evacuated over several weeks. The island, like the rest of Spain, has been experiencing an intense drought for more than a year.