Laura still remembers how her cousins took the tractors to make way for the firefighters on the forest roads that were heading to the fire that started a lightning strike. The Bejís forest fire, declared on August 15 a year ago and which strained Alto Palancia for several weeks, is remembered above all by those who look at its mountains every day and hate the blackness left by the ash.
"You're always looking for green, your gaze accidentally goes away, but black is there...", explains the young woman, who lives in Barcelona and spends time at the family home in this town in the interior of Castellón whenever possible. From her ancestors he inherited his love for her streets, as well as the olive trees that her grandfather took care of and that can be seen, unshakable, in the panoramic view that shows the side walk that borders the castle of Bejís. They did not burn, they are still there for another year.
And it was not little that burned. According to the report prepared by the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through the CEAM, the area affected by the fire was 19,159 hectares.
The affected forest area is a total of 17,352 hectares, with 13.3% of this area covered by trees. Large continuous areas of olive cultivation were lost and, mainly, of almond trees in production, although also truffle holm oak crops.
That August afternoon, and those that followed, they collectively remembered her in a tribute ceremony held last Tuesday. It was a tribute presided over by the mayoress of the municipality, Mª José Madrid, in which she related the experiences of a year ago and requested the support of all the Administrations so that the recovery of the municipality is "as fast as possible".
The new Minister of Justice and the Interior, Elisa Núñez, who attended the event, as well as the sub-delegate of the Government in Castellón, Soledad Ten, listened to him. Also at the ceremony, the City Hall medal was awarded to the people and entities that intervened in the extinction of the fire and to others that the institution feels gave them "their support."
With a more critical look, there are those who explain that they have felt alone, very alone, during this time and that that afternoon of virulent fire they lacked "planning and knowledge of the mountain." Oriwa was born in part from this criticism, which wants to go "beyond" and recover the economic and social life of the affected populations through work activities linked to nature conservation.
They intend to recover the lost flora and fauna and avoid another catastrophe, since the area knows a lot about fire: only 40% of the area burned in last year's fire had not suffered any previous fire since 1993, since that year there have been various small fires -in 1994, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2009- although between all of them they only account for 0.14% of the area burned in 2022.
Laura is one of the people involved in the Oriwa association, which emerged after the fire and brings together volunteers from Bejís, Torás, Teresa, Sacañet and El Toro, towns from which some 2,100 people were evicted those days. Magda, another of its involved promoters, explains that they are trying to join forces to recover what was lost, but from her explanations and desires it can be seen that they are looking for something more: to make the fire crisis a real “opportunity” for the region. “The uses of the mountain used to be different, before there were three ranchers in the area and now there is no one left. The last one now runs the bar”, explains another of the associates in this entity that has close to 100 people collaborating, divided into different work groups that exist in each town.
They have carried out garbage cleanups in the bush and awareness-raising activities, such as a T-shirt or backpack workshop under the slogan “For a living bush”, aimed at children in the area. But they want more: they are managing the transfer of municipal land -in Bejís they already have three- for the creation of nurseries and they are waiting for the transfer of the Casa del Forestal, which had been abandoned.
“There are many people who would like to stay here, but it is not possible, they are forced to leave”, says Magda. Laura agrees: "If there were jobs, people would stay." Bejís, like El Toro, Sacañet, Alcublas, Torás or Teresa, is one of the depopulated municipalities of the Valencian Community that is part of the AVANT network (Valencian Anti-Depopulation Agenda). For those who live here and for those who frequent it and feel it their own, reforesting the mountain and repopulating its streets is as important as preventing the fire from repeating itself.
