“On Saturday around one-thirty in the morning, I started receiving messages from citizens who thought their houses were burning, we also had to start evacuating the nursing home and make more difficult decisions; literally, I thought the whole city was on fire.” This is how Tania Baños, mayor of La Vall d’Uixó, describes the most tense moments experienced after the hellish fire broke out, forcing thousands of residents of the Castellón town to evacuate, who have spent several days on edge facing the threat of fire over their homes.
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With normality largely restored in her town, although the fire is far from being controlled and the threat persists over several towns in the region, the mayor highlights that “the behavior of the citizens has been exemplary, both in obeying what the authorities have decreed at each moment, as well as in solidarity, in unity.” Baños recalls how the city’s Restaurant Association made itself available to the advanced command post “to make sandwiches, provide coffee, in short, with everything that it means for so many people working for so many consecutive hours, with many messages, both of encouragement and of volunteers offering themselves and more, because in moments like these a message of calm must also be sent, since professionals must be the ones acting.”
The behavior of the citizens has been exemplary, both in obeying what the authorities have decreed at each moment, as well as in solidarity
Tania Baños
Mayor of La Vall d’Uixó
For the population, “these have been three heart-stopping days, but people have been able to return to their homes, although access to the mountain is still restricted, but they have had a home to return to.” However, “concern about the evolution of the fire continues,” warns the mayor, “and also for the rest of the region, for municipalities that are still evacuated.”
Baños highlights the great work carried out by the Military Emergency Unit, “and also the coordination and support I had right at that moment of maximum tension from the Government delegate and the minister (Diana Morant), as they also helped me to see that there was a common front against the fire, to be able to stop the fire from entering the rest of the city.”
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The flank of the fire that worries the most is the west
At noon on Wednesday, April 29, the flank of the fire that worries the most is the west, between the municipalities of Tales and Alfondeguilla. Around 400 firefighters work at all times, and the task is carried out in shifts so that the professionals can relieve each other. In total, the personnel participating is approximately more than 1,200 personnel including firefighters from various institutions, health workers, environment, UME, the Civil Guard, or Miteco.
After four nights of forest fire, 172 people are being moved from shelters to other places so they can be better accommodated and rest. Places such as the student residence of the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, which has 50 rooms, or the high-performance center of Penyeta Roja in Castellón, with 25 rooms, and the Vilavella spa, with another 20 rooms, have been enabled.
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