Last week’s major fire on the Canary Island of La Palma, off the west coast of Africa, left the local telescopes unscathed.

This image was taken by the Terra satellite on 2 August and shows the smoke plume drifting off the island’s southeastern coast. The Associated Press reported that it had burned some 3,000 hectares and destroyed 50 homes. Roughly 4,000 people were evacuated.

The Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, which hosts a number of world-class telescopes, is in the north-central portion of the island. Javier Mendez, a spokesman for the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, says that observing time was not affected. Last month the Grand Canary Telescope, the world’s largest single optical telescope, was inaugurated at the observatory to much fanfare (Nature).

Fires are a hazard of life at many observatories; in 2003, for instance, most of Mt. Stromlo Observatory in Australia was wiped out by flames.

Image: NASA Earth Observatory