The Generalitat Valenciana has sent an Es-Alert message to order the confinement of the municipality of Gátova, with 452 inhabitants, due to the forest fire declared on Thursday afternoon between Gátova and Segorbe (Castellón) caused by a lightning strike, because of the risk posed by the smoke reaching the municipality.
Additionally, the Generalitat has requested support from the UME for fire extinguishing and has established situation 2 of the Special Forest Fire Plan, which implies a potential serious impact on the population or natural assets.
The burned area as of Friday afternoon already amounts to 133 hectares (all within the municipality of Segorbe), and the fire currently has a perimeter of about 7.8 kilometers. The situation is “far from being controlled,” lamented the Secretary of Emergencies and Interior, Fernando Lasheras.
Emergencies has asked the residents of Gátova to stay inside their homes, close doors and windows, turn off air conditioning and extractors, and to get information only through official channels.
Aerial resources joined the control and extinguishing efforts early Friday morning, and by mid-afternoon there are 30 ground teams and 17 aerial teams working in the area.
During the night, eleven forest firefighter units from the Generalitat, two teams from the Provincial Consortium of Valencia, two from Castellón, two forest brigades, one command unit, a forest coordinator from Valencia and another from Castellón, one command unit, and one forest technician worked on this fire.
From the Advanced Command Post (PMA), established in the town of Gátova, the Minister of Emergencies and Interior, Juan Carlos Valderrama, the Secretary of Emergencies and Interior, Fernando Lasheras, the mayor of Gátova, Jesús Salmerón, the chiefs of Firefighters of Valencia and Castellón, and the experts directing the operation are monitoring the fire’s evolution.
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According to the Provincial Consortium of Castellón last night, the fire is evolving in an area with difficult land access, so the extensive deployment is working on the two flanks presented by the fire.
The CV-25 road remains closed in both directions and with all lanes affected, between kilometer points 35.0 and 10.0, between the municipalities of Altura and Olocau, according to the website of the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT).
The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) explained that the storms recorded yesterday afternoon in the fire area were dry or with little precipitation—only 0.2 liters per square meter were recorded at the Segorbe station—and has attached images on social media of the lightning strike closest to the fire, which occurred at 20:06 hours, with positive polarity and an intensity of more than 37.6 kiloamperes.
Additionally, Aemet detailed that the night was cool in the area, with temperatures below 20 degrees for almost the entire night—with a minimum of 18.2—humidity above 70%, and light wind, with gusts of 10 kilometers per hour from the southwest.
Today’s forecast, according to Aemet, is that the wind will shift to a southeast breeze, with gusts of 30 km/h from midday, a maximum temperature of 28 degrees, and humidity not very low, around 50% or slightly lower at midday in Segorbe.
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