Segorbe (Castellón) (EFE).- Neighbors and workers of the villages evicted due to the fire that originated in Villanueva de Viver and that has already burned 3,000 hectares live with uncertainty, sorrow and anguish the advance of the flames and, although they are grateful for that there have been no human victims, they regret that the worst thing is the loss of their natural environment, “the only inheritance” they could leave.
The fire is advancing uncontrollably and already has a perimeter of 30 kilometers. Some 1,500 people have been evicted, although for now the urban centers have not been affected by the flames.
Rehoused in a campsite
The Red Cross has established a shelter in Segorbe, and another in Onda, where more than 100 people stayed last night, but which are being relocated to more comfortable environments such as the Navajas campsite -where residents of Montanejos have gone-, the Segorbe seminary – where all the residents of Puebla de Arenoso are – and hotels in both Segorbe and Altura. Most of the evicted people are staying with relatives and friends.
Lola Roger, a worker at the Puebla de Arenoso City Council, explained to EFE that the consistory staff was in Segorbe until all the residents were relocated and “organizing dinners and making sandwiches while the Red Cross arrived.”
At seven in the morning “we were already seeing how the displaced were doing”, who will be staying from this Friday at the Segorbe seminary, “in a normal bed and a fantastic environment”.
complicated situations
Roger points out that it will be a well-known restaurant in Segorbe, Gastroadictos, that will make lunch and dinner for them at the Red Cross hostel, where they all share “this difficult situation of fire and weather, with changes in weather” and that it is very The situation in Puebla, which has four urban centers, is complicated.
A municipal term, he details, “very large”, with 96% forest land and with places of great environmental value that Lola Roger already speaks of in the past tense, unable to avoid tears at the ravages of the fire.
The residents of Puebla de Arenoso will be able to go this afternoon to feed the animals or pick up those that they had to leave behind in haste, and the situation of a cattle farm is worrying, which cannot be evacuated and is confident that it will survive to the flames
The fire devastates his inheritance
The worst loss, says Roger, is “our natural environment; lives are all controlled and material things, after all, we don’t take anywhere, but the inheritance we can leave is our environment and Puebla de Arenoso is very focused on taking care of it, with organic crops and care for the environment” .
Santiago García, also a resident of Puebla de Arenoso, moved looking for a quieter life and is “surrounded by nature and wonderful people.”
García recalls the speed of the eviction: “They called me by phone from the City Hall to lend a hand because they had to evict quickly. They asked us to take something, but with many uncertainties”.
“We went to Montanejos, where they treated us wonderfully, but soon they told us that they also had to evict that population,” he says, also thanking them for the accommodation at the seminary, where they are now “really well.”
evacuated children
Amparo Blay, a teacher at the Montanejos Secondary School for twenty-eight years, tells EFE that while they were teaching class yesterday at 4:30 p.m., the head of studies told them that the children of La Puebla de Arenoso, La Monzona and Los Calpes could not return to their homes and that they would come to pick them up.
From Montanejos they went down to Segorbe, not only the residents and the students, but many people who were in the thermal tourism hotels and were from abroad. Then they came down from Montán, which was also evicted, and then they reached Segorbe and Altura, where many people stayed in hotels.
Blay praises the hospitality of the people in the area and the quality of the institute, where one hundred students study in a center “that works very well and is beautiful”, where many environmental projects are carried out and the children “have other interests, they take care of their animals, their families, they work in the fields…”, and he makes a wish: “Let’s hope things recover”.
resistance to leave
María Teresa Navarro, a neighbor of Montán, admits that she was very resistant to leaving her house, and she did it “almost” when “the doorbell melted at four in the morning.” She will sleep at her granddaughter’s house, because she is older and has a hip problem; she laments about how dry the forest is while she looks at her dog, who “is baffled and doesn’t even want to eat”, but whom “she would never have left behind”.
Agustina Tamborero and Mari Carmen are also residents of Puebla de Arenoso and they explain that yesterday afternoon it seemed that the fire was “on top of them”.
Mari Carmen was helping at the bar when “very nervous people began to enter, alerted to how the fire already looked, very close.”
They were “very scared” at first and explain that they first went to Montanejos, but they also evacuated it and sent everyone to Segorbe, says Tamborero, who jokes that they have come “with what they are wearing” and that they have gone to buy “a nightgown”. This Friday “we will sleep in the seminary and what touches, touches”, he points out.
Agustina indicates that although they don’t have much information, “they say that no house has been burned” and that gives her some relief: “As long as the houses and people don’t burn, things are going well for us.”
The residents of Villanueva meet, chat and look with saddened faces at the images of the perimeter of the fire that arrive on their phones while they lament the entire burned forest mass and live with the uncertainty of what the return will be like. EFE