The train caught in the Bejís fire went straight into flames because the firefighting consortium did not notify

The train, which was trapped by the fire in Bejís, on the track that connects Valencia and Zaragoza, in the province of Castellón, tried to complete its journey because the fire management that leads Forward command post and the Castellón Firefighters Consortium suggests that it did not report an alarm, as sources familiar with the facts confirmed to EL ESPAÑOL.

According to these same sources, Adif authorizes the departure of the train from Valencia because it is not aware of an incident in the area that has affected the tracks and no one has notified the infrastructure manager of the risk.

Specifically, the convoy left Valencia at 4:23 PM on Tue with 30 passengers. During the journey, another 21 people got on and 2 got off, so there were 49 passengers on the train at the time of the accident.

For 5:54 p.mthe driver stopped the convoy after seeing an intense shower of ash and smoke.

The railroad company then contacted the circulation command post to ask if there was a fire in the vicinity and was informed that they did not know that information, “both at that time and at the time of the train’s departure from Valencia“, Renfe sources told this editorial.

In the process of changing the cabin, they were produced in the train “situations of tension and anxiety” as several passengers wanted to leave the cars and did so despite the driver’s warnings that it was not safe.

[Momentos de pánico en el tren Valencia-Zaragoza al circular entre llamas y los viajeros huyendo del fuego]

According to these sources, at this point “the fire fighting and automatic braking systems were activated when some passengers break the emergency windows with the men” and the driver had to switch the train to start again and go back.

At 6:20 p.mthe driver resumed the march, picking up people who were running along the road in the direction of Caudiel, some of them with varying degrees of burns.

“Neither Adif nor Renfe receive notification of a possible incident on the road or that the area is being evacuated by any authority,” the sources added.

A drastic change

In this sense, they reiterate that they were also not informed “that the conditions of the fire had changed drastically compared to the morning when a Renfe medium-distance train traveled on the same route (Valencia-Zaragoza) without detecting an anomaly or track complication”.

To questions from this newspaper, from the Generalitat Valenciana they indicated that the address of the Advanced Command Post corresponds to the Provincial Consortium of Firefighters in Castellón and that the technicians of the Diputación did not report any signal. The Government of Valencia, for its part, is responsible for coordinating the media and warning messages.

“If we don’t have a prior order from management that you need to cut a road or train line, you can’t report it“, added the Emergency Service and phone 112.

The judicial police, Renfe and Adif announced the opening of several independent investigations to clarify what happened. Apparently, despite the proximity of the fire, the closure of this road was not appreciated at a previous meeting held at control command.

A sudden change in wind direction caused one of the tongues of fire to circle the track, causing panic among the train passengers.

This is a very complex fire to deal with, as explained by Emergencies, whose characteristics necessitated a change of strategy within minutes.

Beji’s fire has already burned out more than 10,000 hectares and has reached the province of Valencia.

first communication

The first message Adif received about traffic complications due to a fire came from the driver, Renfe emphasized, “who first detected smoke and ash in the area and then the proximity of the fire“.

According to this information, the protocol establishes that the distribution was stopped by Adif at the request of the State Security Forces (Firefighters, Civil Defense, Civil Guard) or the administration responsible for these decisions, in this case the direction of fire and to the Castellón Consortium, according to the Generalitat .

“Adif and Renfe have followed their internal protocol which states that the first that has information, either directly or indirectly, about changes in road traffic conditions must notify the other to activate prevention and action mechanisms,” these sources added.

After the event, PP and Ciudadanos have requested explanations from the Ministry of Transport and the Generalitat Valenciana about the seriousness of the events.

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