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The satellite image clearly shows the darkened area affected by the fire, which the official figures put at 15,000 hectares. So what is a hectare? This Area Converter provided by the World Land Trust allowed me to put the number into some more readily understood terms. 15,000 hectares is equivalent to:
- 37,065 acres
- 150 square kilometres
- 57.9 square miles
As a football (soccer) pitch is 2.67 acres, the area of the fire is equivalent to about 13,882 football pitches or space for 7,413,000 parked cars. It's about 28,079 American football fields. Based on the World Land Trust' ratio of 150 trees per acre, this disaster could, potentially, have wiped out, 5,559,750 trees.
UPDATE: the Ministry for the Environment have released their official figures for the areas affected, which in Tenerife, was a total of 18,800 hectares. This is greater than the 15,000 hectares originally estimated and converts to 46454.8 acres, or 188 square kilometres, 72.59 square miles or 17,398.8 football (soccer) pitches! The biggest part of the disaster is, of course, for those who have lost their homes and all they owned and, for the nature and wildlife.
