Although the initial impression transmitted yesterday by the mayoress of Calp, Ana Sala, is confirmed, according to which the fire caused by the diversion of a pyrotechnic device has not seriously damaged the archaeological site of the Baños de la Reina, it will be necessary to determine if there were factors that advised the suspension of the launch.
Sala explained that, thanks to the intervention of the Firefighters, the fire calcined one hectare of the area, specifically in the industrial part, without affecting the Roman site: nor the baths, the domus, the necropolis, the waterwheel or the paleo-christian basilica.
Responsible for the Territorial Directorate of Heritage and the archaeologist-director of the site, Alicia Luján, evaluated the damage on the ground. "The work of this year's campaign, whose project has already been drafted and is about to be put out to tender, was going to consist of clearing, replacing the fencing and recovery and documentation of the industrial village and now it will be necessary to reconsider the restoration of the burned structures" declared Lujan.
In any case, the final report requires a more detailed and thorough evaluation of the technicians. It also happens that the area has been declared a flora micro-reserve by the Ministry of the Environment, as it has specimens of Allium subvillosum, an endemic and protected plant. In this case, too, it is too early to determine the extent of the damage, as explained by the municipal biologist, "because this bulb is in a latent and underground phase and until February, which is its flowering season, we will not know the real consequences of the fire."
The Baños de la Reina site has the BIC declaration and has plots of public and private ownership, it is located about 200 meters from the Arenal-Bol beach breakwater from where the traditional 'Castell a la Mar' was fired . There is a plan from the Provincial Council to turn it into an open-air museum, an archaeological park that can be visited in the style of the one that already exists in El Campello, for which an investment of around 15 million euros is planned.
To justify the launch of the pyrotechnic show, the mayoress declared that "no authority, no fire department, no Sub-delegation, no administration warned that the fireworks could not be fired." “No one at any time raised the possibility of canceling them, it was a fortuitous accident,” she said.
According to the consistory, there was an orange alert due to wind, which does not prohibit fireworks, and there was no warning. At that time, it was 20 kilometers per hour and the cancellation of an event "occurs when gusts of 50 kilometers / hour are reached."
However, the municipal group of the PP (the party to which the mayoress belonged, but which she left after not being proposed as a candidate to run with a local candidacy), has requested the holding of an extraordinary plenary session to report on the fire. One of the options that the PP proposes is that the traditional fireworks show be fired from platforms installed offshore, avoiding proximity to homes and archaeological remains.
In the Valencian Community there are precedents in which the courts even sentenced mayors to prison terms for the crime of serious negligence as a result of fires caused by fireworks.
In 2006, Ricardo Arnal, mayor of Náquera, was sentenced to 4 months and a fine for authorizing the firing of a fireworks display that caused a fire in the Sierra Calderona, with pre-emergency level 3 being declared for fire risk. The same thing happened in 2014 when, when Ernesto Sanjuán was mayor of Cullera, a fire burned more than three hectares, due to an authorized pyrotechnic show despite the warning to the contrary issued in writing by the Fire Chief. In that case, the penalty was one year and nine months in prison.
The incident has occurred precisely at a time when the new Consell has not yet replaced the Generalitat's Emergency management team, despite the fact that the regional secretary himself, José María Ángel, has requested to be dismissed so that they are the designated persons by the new government who design their policies. One of the issues to be addressed will be whether it is necessary to toughen the criteria to authorize fireworks and increase the minimum distances with respect to the public, forest masses and heritage elements, in light of the current climatic circumstances and the greater severity of the fires that break out. produce. .
