When on Saturday, around 7:15 p.m., we were preparing the dinner service, we were surprised to see several military vehicles passing through the square. We were aware that there was a fire, we saw the column of smoke, but we did not think it was so serious. A few minutes later, the mayor called me to ask that we not open the bar and to be alert for a possible evacuation.”
Read more Man stabbed to death in a fight at a bar in the La Mina neighborhood
This is the testimony of Mario Marín, owner of Ca Mario, in Alfondeguilla (Castelló), one of the temples of lunch in the Valencian Community and an establishment awarded the prestigious Cacau d’Or prize that recognizes those bars that strive to prepare special sandwiches for hikers, cyclists, and visitors who, every weekend, come to this town at the foot of the Serra d’Espadà. The residents of Alfondeguilla have been out of their homes since last Saturday, and the front attacking their municipal area is one of the most concerning in the Vall d’Uixó fire, which has already burned 9,300 hectares and has kept nearly 10,000 people evacuated.
“They went door to door and, in barely half an hour, evacuated the entire town. There was a big traffic jam leaving the town, and some elderly people took a little longer to be ready,” Mario explains to La Vanguardia from his sister-in-law’s house in the coastal town of Xilxes. He and his wife Lucía took a suitcase with two changes of clothes, not expecting the evacuation to last so long, while their son, who is studying to be a musician, was foresighted and packed his instruments to practice.
“On Monday we thought we would return on Tuesday; on Tuesday that it would be Wednesday… I’d rather not make plans,” he says. He admits that after days of great intensity, there are now moments when he needs to disconnect.
Our mountain range, our heritage, the reason many people come to visit us, is burning
The fire remains active, and Mario does not know when he will be able to reopen his family business. Besides the bar, he owns a rural establishment – Casa Pipa, named after the Alto de la Pipa, a mountain of almost 600 meters between the municipalities of Alfondeguilla and Vall d’Uixó. “When we return, I know I will have to throw away everything in the fridge and that I will need a few days to reopen.” Additionally, he is awaiting some guests who were scheduled to stay at the rural house next Friday.
Read more Laura Borràs and the lightning rod pardon
Mario and his wife know that the buildings are fine. The mayor has sent videos of the area through a platform where any resident of the town who wants to can see them, so neighbors can be calm and know where the flames are. “The fire has not affected the urban center,” he explains after seeing the images. The most affected part is the northern area bordering Artana or Eslida, other towns still evacuated due to the advance of the fire and smoke, another major handicap of this brutal fire.
The problem, points out this 50-year-old resident, “is that our mountain range, our heritage, the reason many come to visit us, is burning.” Every weekend, Mario and Lucía prepare between 100 and 120 sandwiches for visitors who come to this town by bike or to do hiking routes. “We have a regular clientele from towns like Vall d’Uixò, Vilareal, or even Sagunto or Puçol who come for our lunches, but there is also a significant percentage who come to go on excursions. We will have to see if people continue coming to walk through a lunar landscape,” he notes.
He prefers not to think about it, only hopes he does not have to close and that people continue coming to have that sandwich that has already become the most iconic of the house and that carries a slow-cooked vegetable stew, with a dropped egg and Burgos blood sausage.
