Members of the forestry fire brigades refresh the surroundings of Montán (Castellón) this Wednesday. MONICA TORRES
Hours pass slowly in Segorbe, where 90 people affected by the fire in the interior of Castellón have been rehoused.
The notice of a message interrupts the nervous wandering of Juan Martínez, a resident of Montán, the town closest to the flames that have already devastated 4,600 hectares.
It is possibly the first time he has smiled since Thursday afternoon, when he left his house, along with his wife and two girls.
He couldn't get the dog off him, Manolo.
It didn't fit.
"Six days have passed and I still haven't heard from my dog," he says sadly.
The message changes his countenance.
It's a photo of Manolo.
"He's fine, he's alive," he proclaims.
Juan does not know how long it will take to return home.
His town is not among one of the six towns to which, since Wednesday afternoon, access has been allowed.
He's not feeling well either.
He feels physically and mentally exhausted.
He is medicated, with blood pressure at 19. That is why he has not even been able to get on the convoy that, accompanied by the Civil Guard, has gone to Montán to feed the animals, something that his wife has done, who has sent him proof that Manolo is fine and the house has not been affected by the fire.
The two points where part of the 1,600 evicted are sheltered are completely different.
In Segorbe they sleep in the seminary, converted into a hostel, and spend the day in a sports center, attended by the Red Cross.
Most of them are distinguished by the hands.
They are robust hands, through which many hours of sun have passed, rough.
Hands of people who live in and for the countryside.
They are mostly people over sixty, some with reduced mobility, who struggle between the restlessness of not being at home and the restlessness of having to return if there is still any danger.
Among them there are more than a dozen from Los Calpes, a district of Puebla de Arenoso.
They know that the houses have not been affected because they have been able to go and feed the animals: chickens, donkeys, dogs, cats and horses.
But they are tired and sad.
They tell them that everything is black.
Antonio and Tori Rodríguez do not want to stop saying that they are well cared for and that they do not mind being away from home for another 24 hours.
They don't want to come back if it's not completely safe.
They also want to highlight the work of the brigades, they ask that their work not be stigmatized because, on this occasion, the fire arose, according to all indications, in a clearing job.
In the case of Los Calpes, thanks to this work, the fire did not reach the houses.
Thanks to the brigades and Agricolaris, a non-profit association, created to receive the transfer of agricultural land, work and exploit it, but also keep it clean.
"Thanks to them, the fire has not entered the town, because all the surroundings were clean," they say.
Antonio and Tori Rodríguez do not want to stop saying that they are well cared for and that they do not mind being away from home for another 24 hours.
They don't want to come back if it's not completely safe.
They also want to highlight the work of the brigades, they ask that their work not be stigmatized because, on this occasion, the fire arose, according to all indications, in a clearing job.
In the case of Los Calpes, thanks to this work, the fire did not reach the houses.
Thanks to the brigades and Agricolaris, a non-profit association, created to receive the transfer of agricultural land, work and exploit it, but also keep it clean.
"Thanks to them, the fire has not entered the town, because all the surroundings were clean," they say.
Antonio and Tori Rodríguez do not want to stop saying that they are well cared for and that they do not mind being away from home for another 24 hours.
They don't want to come back if it's not completely safe.
They also want to highlight the work of the brigades, they ask that their work not be stigmatized because, on this occasion, the fire arose, according to all indications, in a clearing job.
In the case of Los Calpes, thanks to this work, the fire did not reach the houses.
Thanks to the brigades and Agricolaris, a non-profit association, created to receive the transfer of agricultural land, work and exploit it, but also keep it clean.
"Thanks to them, the fire has not entered the town, because all the surroundings were clean," they say.
They don't want to come back if it's not completely safe.
They also want to highlight the work of the brigades, they ask that their work not be stigmatized because, on this occasion, the fire arose, according to all indications, in a clearing job.
In the case of Los Calpes, thanks to this work, the fire did not reach the houses.
Thanks to the brigades and Agricolaris, a non-profit association, created to receive the transfer of agricultural land, work and exploit it, but also keep it clean.
"Thanks to them, the fire has not entered the town, because all the surroundings were clean," they say.
They don't want to come back if it's not completely safe.
They also want to highlight the work of the brigades, they ask that their work not be stigmatized because, on this occasion, the fire arose, according to all indications, in a clearing job.
In the case of Los Calpes, thanks to this work, the fire did not reach the houses.
Thanks to the brigades and Agricolaris, a non-profit association, created to receive the transfer of agricultural land, work and exploit it, but also keep it clean.
"Thanks to them, the fire has not entered the town, because all the surroundings were clean," they say.
Thanks to this work, the fire did not reach the houses.
Thanks to the brigades and Agricolaris, a non-profit association, created to receive the transfer of agricultural land, work and exploit it, but also keep it clean.
"Thanks to them, the fire has not entered the town, because all the surroundings were clean," they say.
Thanks to this work, the fire did not reach the houses.
Thanks to the brigades and Agricolaris, a non-profit association, created to receive the transfer of agricultural land, work and exploit it, but also keep it clean.
"Thanks to them, the fire has not entered the town, because all the surroundings were clean," they say.
Marina picks up the laundry at the Navajas campsite to which she was evicted, before returning to her home in Puebla de Arenoso. MONICA TORRES
The atmosphere at the Navajas campsite is very different.
There, where a hundred residents of Montanejos have been relocated, entire families, about twenty children, their parents, uncles and grandparents, time passes faster.
Leading them is their mayor, Miguel Sandalinas.
The City Council will bear the cost of everything “because we believe that it was time to make an effort”, he assures.
They have hired monitors for the little ones who can also attend classes at the Navajas school.
They go on excursions and some of them even start playing something on the guitar.
They eat and dine together in the campsite restaurant and sleep in cabins or teepees.
Despite the water balloon fights, the songs and the setting, the anxiety is still present.
“At first, because of the alarm.
And, once they know the damage is under control,
the anxiety of wanting to return home,” says Sandalinas.
But neither do they have a return date.
In the groups they talk about Friday or Saturday, but no one knows for sure.
The only one who will be able to return to her house this Wednesday afternoon is Marina because she is a neighbor of Puebla de Arenoso, although her husband is from Montanejos.
She has three children, ages 6, 10, and 14.
"They are fine, they are tired because they need their routine, but they are fine," she says.
The news that she can return to her home catches him with all the children's laundry hanging out.
She has considered whether to return or wait one more day, but her husband is a firefighter and has told her that he is safe, despite the fact that they will have to be confined inside the houses.
Like other neighbors, she was able to feed her animals again.
The first day was last Friday: “Among the smoke,
the ash and the planes that were flying very low because we are next to a swamp where they load, only the bombs were missing.
It was horrible, ”he recalls.
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