Alicante (EFE) complete’ in most of the hotels in the city.
The traditional fireworks palm tree launched from Mount Benacantil, the slope of the Santa Bárbara Castle, has given the start to the ‘cremà’, in which 79 commissions and the City Hall bonfire have calcined the monuments that, little by little, They have been controlled by the 44 fire brigade teams, which, in addition, have wet the public in the ‘banyà’.
Since 12:00 a.m. this Sunday, the more than 150 bonfires have been turning into flames.
They have done it in three different phases, because, given the need for the firefighters to control the extinction of all of them, the first ones burned at 12:00 a.m., while a second batch burned at 1:30 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
The ‘Geoda’, the official City Hall bonfire
The first of these was the official City Hall bonfire, the ‘Geoda’, which wanted to be a tribute to all those who make up the Bonfires and who had demonstrated their capacity for recovery and resilience during the pandemic.
In front of a Town Hall square that has become too small and just after the palm tree lit up the sky of Alicante, the Belleas del Foc and the hundreds of attendees have observed how the monument, the work of Pedro Espadero, burned down and closed this cycle of bonfires, which in turn opens a new one.
Barely thirty seconds after the firework was lit, the flames have been covering all the figures of the monument, including the auction, and the fire has gradually taken over the bonfire of the City Council, which has taken half a hour to burn out completely.
Municipal sources have highlighted that until two in the morning, the cremà was being “safe, fast, agile and followed by hundreds of thousands of people”, as well as they have exposed that the palm tree has caused an outbreak of vegetation fire in the Mount Benacantil, which has been controlled in just ten minutes.
The Diputació-Renfe bonfire, winner of the first prize
Likewise, they have also pointed out that the rhythm is very good and that at 1.27 hours the first batch was already burned and that the Diputació-Renfe bonfires, winner of the first prize, and that of the Explanada have been the ones that have gathered the most attendees.
After seeing the City Hall bonfire burn, the mayor of Alicante, Luis Barcala, stressed that these have been “fairly incident-free” festivities, mostly caused by the heat, while insisting that the security device to this ‘cremà’ had been prepared for up to two million people “and we have to be there, there”.
“We must have gotten very close to that figure of two million people, which is absolutely a record, and all of this without practically any incidents,” highlighted Barcala, who described these holidays as “record-breaking”, before expecting that all monuments are burned “with the greatest tranquility and security”.
A total of 750 firefighters, local police officers and Civil Protection volunteers who have taken care of security work on it at night, Alicante Security Councilor Julio Calero explained to EFE, who has stressed that they are up to 44 teams of firefighters who have participated in the extinction of these works.
Thus, he has indicated that the 44 teams are divided into six zones so that the cremà develops progressively “and there are no incidents anywhere.”
The palm tree fireworks from the castle of Santa Barbara
“In addition, we have the coverage of the palm tree from the castle of Santa Bárbara, which entails a very specific device to prevent the hillside of the castle from igniting and for which there have been nine police teams, three firefighting teams and 35 people from the parks and gardens team, with autonomous teams for any incident that the palm tree could cause”, Calero stressed.
He has stated that this device will last until 4 am this Sunday, “although occasionally it takes a little longer due to some shack that has to be moved to another place so that it can be burned correctly,” Calero concluded.