The Forest fire of Alto Palancia is already the most voracious in almost 30 years and, if the firefighting teams are unable to stop their progress, could become in the next few hours the worst in the history of Castellon –In Espadilla, 19,309 hectares were burned in 1994–. This Thursday morning it has been confirmed that more than 13,000 hectares in a perimeter greater than 50 kilometers.
The three municipalities evacuated on Tuesday –Bejís, Torás and Teresa, plus the Viver campsite, a town that remains confined– were joined by Sacañet in the early hours of Wednesday due to a new and unexpected change of wind, while the fire also reached the province of Valenciawhere it affected the town of Alcublas.
Up to 30 air vehicles and more than 400 people, including firefighters from the Diputación de Castellón and Valencia, foresters from the Generalitat, the UME and firefighters from the Valencia and Castellón City Council, continued with some hard work of extinction due to the rugged orography, adverse weather conditions and very dry terrain that works like real gasoline for the flames. In the late afternoon, the concern was centered on the arrival in the region of thunderstorms with an electrical device that, although they could drop an expected rain that would weaken the fire, could also bring about the fall of new lightning — a fact that is, for the moment, the main hypothesis about the causes that started the fire–.
The most active outbreaks were yesterday in the area of Sacañet and Ragudo. The firefighters also worked intensely in the Barracas area so that the fire did not approach the A-23 motorway, while the CV-235 between Teresa and Bejís and the CV-236 between the CV-235 and Bejís continued to be cut off.
From the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet), they stressed, late in the afternoon, that the temperature was not very high in the area of the fire –20ºC– and the humidity exceeded 60% in the area, but they pointed out that the real risk lay in a very intense southeast wind.
Both Viver and Segorbe maintain their provisional shelters activated to accommodate those displaced persons who may need it.
The president of the Provincial Council, José Martí, explained yesterday that the situation “is not as positive as we would like, but neither does it have the negative charge that we experienced on Tuesday, when the fire advanced in an unknown way and that surprised everyone” .
Firefighters discharged
It should be remembered that two firefighters belonging to the Segorbe park were injured when they were trapped by the flames and their truck burned. Fortunately, on Wednesday they were discharged from the hospital and the evolution of the forest agent from Aragón, who was also injured, is favorable.
For her part, the Minister of the Interior and Justice, Gabriela Bravo, stressed that the priority is to safeguard the lives of the residents, as did the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig. “We are far from stabilizing it and closing the perimeter. The weather has not been favourable,” Puig said.
According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, the municipality where the most homes have been damaged by fire is Torás. On the other hand, Bejís has managed to suffer minimal damage, despite the rapid eviction on Tuesday – the flames have affected the facade of a block with 8 houses -.
The lightning caused two fires in Albocàsser and Vilar de Canes.
“They got us out of bed”
Sacañet was the last town to be evicted on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. Diego Gámiz remembers that it was early in the morning when a neighbor went to his house to tell them that a new change in the wind had directed the fire towards Sacañet and that the evacuation of the municipality was proceeding. “It was 3:00 in the morning when the Civil Guard got us out of bed“recalls her mother, Natalia, still very shocked by the scope of the fire. “We are scared, of course,” the woman acknowledges in conversations with this newspaper.
“The agents asked us, in a very good manner, to take the essentials from our homes and leave because there was a risk for the population and the competent authorities had decided so. We made a small bag, put some clothes and some of our belongings more valuable,” recalls Diego Gámiz, whose family has also relocated to Jérica, where they have a house.
The concern for Diego is, however, important, since he points out that in Sacañet they had to leave several of their dogs, as well as all of their bee hives on a farm owned by him. “We don’t know how they will be now, really,” laments the young man, whose father works in fire prevention.
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Like many other evictees, they have the fright in the body and latent uncertainty for knowing what will have become not only of their houses, but of their town as they knew it. “This is a natural disaster and it will take many years to reverse and for the forest to recover,” he says.
Diego and his mother are now very aware of the evolution of the flames, at the expense of being able to reopen the doors of their house as soon as possible.