The fire declared in the municipality of Segorbe (Castellón), which on Friday afternoon forced the evacuation of the Valencian municipality of Gátova, continues out of control and is already affecting part of the Sierra Calderona Natural Park. The fire has provisionally burned 423 hectares and has generated a perimeter of 11.4 kilometers, according to data provided by the Minister of Emergencies and Interior, Juan Carlos Valderrama, after the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi).
The authorities have specified that not all of the affected area is within the protected area of the Sierra Calderona, although the flames have reached this natural park, one of the main forest areas in the area. The evolution of the fire during the next few hours will be largely determined by wind, humidity and temperatures.
The head of extinction at the Advanced Command Post (PMA), José Melitón, has acknowledged that the fire is currently “out of control”, although he explained that there are two active fronts in which the extinction teams are “practically already prepared to act”.
“We are acting, in fact, with machinery and ground personnel,” said Melitón, who has been relatively optimistic regarding the evolution during the night. As he explained, the wind and humidity conditions could be somewhat more favorable for extinguishing work. “We are going to try to work towards it,” he noted.
Between 250 and 280 troops are currently working on the device, with relief to maintain operational capacity throughout the night. In the hours of greatest deployment, up to 340 troops and around twenty aerial assets have intervened.
The evolution of the fire forced the emergency to be raised to situation 2 of the Special Plan against the Risk of Forest Fires (PEIF) after the weather conditions worsened at midday. During the morning, the teams had managed to make significant progress in containing the flames, with the intervention of eleven aerial means, but the increase in wind subsequently complicated the work.
Melitón explained that since midday there were “a series of complications” caused especially by the wind and the virulence it acquired in the ravines. “Extinction has complicated us,” he admitted. The fire headed towards Gátova, while the high temperatures and dryness accumulated during these days also acted as adverse factors.
Given the proximity of the smoke, Emergencies sent an ES-Alert message to the mobile phones of the population of Gátova at 3:02 p.m. to order their confinement. At 5:20 p.m. a second notice was issued recommending the evacuation of all residents.
The councilor highlighted that the eviction took place “with total normality, with total civility, with total awareness of the population” and as a fundamentally preventive measure. The device was designed to guarantee, first, the safety of people and, subsequently, protect the assets of the municipality.
The president of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, traveled to the WFP to convey a message of “tranquility” to the evacuated residents and nearby towns. “We are working in a very coordinated manner,” he stated, before thanking the population and municipal officials of Gátova and Segorbe for their collaboration.
Pérez Llorca also emphasized coordination between the different administrations, with the participation of the provincial firefighter consortiums of Castellón and Valencia, forest firefighters of the Generalitat, the State Security Forces and Bodies and the Military Emergency Unit.
“What citizens want is less discussions and more solutions,” said the president, who defended that coordination between administrations is making it possible to face a summer that is especially complicated due to the forest fires in Spain and in the Valencian Community.
The priority during the next few hours will be to stabilize the two active fronts and prevent the fire from continuing to advance towards Gátova and through the interior of the Sierra Calderona.
