The serious Tírig fire has been stabilized after burning 754 hectares and displacing more than 700 residents

The Tírig forest fire was stabilized this Monday at 4:42 p.m., after three days of intense work and an emergency that forced the evacuation of more than 700 residents of Catí. The Emergency Coordination Center has declared the end of situation 2 of the Special Plan against the Risk of Forest Fires and has downgraded the operation to situation 1.

The latest calculation made by Cecopi places the affected area at 754 hectares, compared to the 810 provisionally estimated during the morning. Of these, 617 are forest land. The fire has affected 404 hectares in the municipality of Tírig and another 350 in Catí, within a perimeter of 22.8 kilometers.

Stabilization means that the flames are evolving within the established control lines and without immediate capacity to overcome them. The fire remains active and still needs to be controlled and extinguished, so teams will continue working and monitoring for possible flare-ups.

Residents return and the UME begins its withdrawal

The favorable evolution has allowed all evacuation and confinement orders to be lifted. The residents of Catí housed in the Xert sports center have already returned to their homes, while three people remain temporarily in a residence in Morella and are expected to return this Tuesday.

The CV-128 road between Tírig and Catí remains closed to facilitate the work of emergency services. The Civil Guard maintains surveillance and authorities have asked the population to avoid approaching the perimeter while firefighters cool and secure the affected areas.

The Military Emergency Unit has also begun to withdraw to its base in Bétera at the request of the operation's management. There it will remain on alert to respond to any new request from the Generalitat. During the day, more than 300 personnel, 21 aerial assets, and more than 50 ground units have worked.

The Government Delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, has thanked the coordination between administrations and has highlighted that emergency professionals "have once again demonstrated that they are great professionals." The Minister of Emergencies and Interior, Juan Carlos Valderrama, has also recognized the behavior of the residents and the work carried out in recent days.

The Technical Director of the Advanced Command Post, Antonio Rodrigo, explained that the fire shows a very favorable evolution. "We practically have no hot spots and we are now perimetering the fire," he said. The operation will be reduced according to needs, although personnel will remain deployed throughout the perimeter.

The main concern during the next few hours is the meteorology. Forecasts point to possible storms and wind gusts of between 80 and 90 kilometers per hour, conditions that will force the work to be adapted to protect those involved and prevent any reproduction.

The fire started late on Friday afternoon, during an electrical storm that left more than a hundred lightning strikes in the province of Castellón. The investigation is still open, although the main hypothesis points to a natural origin caused by an electrical discharge, as in other fires declared that afternoon in Culla, la Salzadella and la Serra d'en Galceran.

Bernabé has asked to maintain maximum caution during the next few days due to the high risk of fires and the increase in travel expected due to Wednesday's solar eclipse. Provincial and forest firefighters will remain deployed in Tírig until the fire is definitively extinguished.