The fire that has affected several municipalities in the interior of the province of Valencia since last Thursday could have been caused. “The human factor” is the main hypothesis on which the Civil Guard agents are working, who have already taken statements from some witnesses (not suspects).
This was stated yesterday by the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, who traveled to the Advanced Command Post to follow first-hand the efforts to extinguish a fire that has already affected some 2,500 hectares in a perimeter of 60 kilometers and forced the evacuation and confinement of several municipalities.
Fortunately, the Generalitat Valenciana reported yesterday afternoon that “all restrictions were lifted in the municipalities affected by the fire, except Ador and the Montecorona and Corona Urbanization.” During these days there have been nearly 6,000 people confined and another 850 have been evacuated due to the proximity of the fire to different parts of the affected towns. It is the second large fire that occurs in the Valencian Community outside the summer season after another fire, declared in March in Villanueva de Viver, burned almost 5,000 hectares.
Regarding the cause of the fire, the Government delegate explained that the investigation must determine whether the start of the fire “was an intentional or accidental human cause,” although she stated that, in any case, the human factor seems to be behind it. what happened. It should be noted that the fire started on Thursday when the Valencian Community was suffering the effects of the Ciarán storm, which caused great virulence of the wind and facilitated the rapid spread of the fire.
Adverse weather conditions initially prevented the participation of aerial means in the extinction work.
Although yesterday the evolution of the flames allowed the restrictions to be lifted in a large part of the affected municipalities and the majority of residents were allowed to return to their homes, the Generalitat Emergency Coordination Center recalled that traffic is still restricted within the perimeter. of the fire and surrounding areas since the troops continue working with heavy machinery and their extinguishing activity could be hampered.
Likewise, it was requested to avoid any activity in the area related to hiking, motorcycling or mountain tourism as it can be "very dangerous since there are still hot spots."
In fact, before the restrictions were lifted, the Civil Guard located some people in an urbanization in Ador, despite the fact that the area had been evacuated and the return to the homes had not yet been authorized.
