Nine fires since the summer and 16 hectares burned in the Devesa del Saler in Valencia, a Mediterranean forest of about 800 hectares, located between the L’Albufera natural park and the Mediterranean Sea. The last two incidents, practically consecutive, have set off all the alarms. This Monday three forestry brigades review the perimeter of the last fire, declared this weekend and that was controlled on Sunday. The Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, has asked the City Council, which is entrusted with the management of the natural space, to convene a local safety board to coordinate all the Administrations involved to stop fires that are suspected of being intentional. The mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, of the PP, responds to criticism from the opposition about her management that there is no type of negligence: “There is a crazy person who wants to set fire to” this natural area. Seprona and the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard investigate what or who is behind the fires.
Catalá met this Monday at City Hall with the Minister of Justice of the Generalitat, Elisa Núñez, from Vox, following the fires, which affect a protected area. The Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, has asked the mayor to convene a local security board to coordinate all the administrations involved. The municipal opposition will present urgent motions in this regard in tomorrow’s plenary session. “The Civil Guard has been working for days on several lines of investigation, so we are going to let them take their course,” Bernabé assured.
The mayor of the capital has complained about the management of the previous local government, of Compromís and PSPV, in the forested area: “There has been a ecosnobbery and a significant lack of prevention and cleaning measures,” Catalá stressed, giving as an example the pending installation of cannons in charge of cooling this forested area. In any case, the councilor considers that the latest fire does not seem like an isolated incident “but rather we are clear that there is a person behind it who is causing it. I appeal to everyone’s responsibility,” she stressed.
Sergi Campillo was responsible for the management of Devesa-Albufera for eight years with the previous local government and the current councilor of Compromís, in the opposition, points out that this weekend’s fire is the most serious since 2015. “During the In the last eight years we had practically not had any fires and what is happening this year, with recurring fires, is very worrying,” Campillo responded to the criticism of the PP mayor.
The mayor announced today the awarding of a preventive system of cannons installed on the ground to cool the area. The installation works have been entrusted to the company Sogeser Facility Services for a total amount of 246,151 euros. Campillo has assessed that “the water cannons and the sensor system are finally going to be installed in La Devesa, a contract that was completed by the Joan Ribó government”, which he was pending to award.
Campillo recalled that during his government’s mandate, the Local Forest Fire Plan was developed for the first time in history, as well as the Forest Management Plan and the Devesa-Albufera maintenance contract was left at historic highs. “We do not accept lessons. The conservation of the Devesa de la Albufera forest is a city issue that has been present in all democratic governments and we hope it continues like this.”
What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe
From the socialist ranks, spokesperson Sandra Gómez has denounced that “Catalá has not shown even the slightest interest until today, when it has scheduled a meeting with the counselor, in resolving the series of fires that are occurring in El Saler and “that keeps the neighbors afraid.” And she has demanded from Catalá real political leadership in the area of firefighters, where up to three councilors have already passed in just four months,” she denounces.
The socialist has pointed out the “irresponsibility” of Catalá with her statements about the cleaning of El Saler: “Her own team sent a press release in which her own government recognized that until August 2023, 87 cleaning orders had been carried out to prevent fires, with the removal of nearly 300 tons of vegetation,” concluded Gómez, who regretted that the Devesa of El Saler is directed by a cilmatic denier, alluding to the Vox councilor José Gosálbez, who will be in charge of managing the this portfolio after the government pact between PP and Vox.
Pere Pau Carrillo, member of the El Saler Neighborhood Association, has expressed the feeling of “helplessness” of the residents in the area in the face of the advance of the fire and asks the Administration to continue surveillance and increase fire prevention. . “We must raise more awareness among the population so that they do not park next to wooded areas or smoke inside the Devesa. This is one of the two green lungs, along with the old Turia riverbed, that Valencia has and we should not lose it. La Devesa belongs to all Valencians,” said Carrillo.
#mayor #Valencia #assures #negligence #Saler #crazy #man #set #fire