A cloud of smoke covers La Orotava, a village in northern Tenerife, at dawn, after wildfire that has raged for a week on the holiday island and forced thousands of people to flee. On August 22, authorities said Spanish firefighters were gaining the upper hand in their battle against the blaze, which broke out late August 15 in an area of steep ravines and cliffs in the northeast of the island, part of Spain's Canary Islands archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa. IMAGES