The strong electrical activity that accompanied the storms that swept through the Valencian Community this Thursday, with more than 4,000 lightning strikes, was the cause of several fires that broke out yesterday. But the fire that most concerns the Generalitat is the one that occurred at night between the municipality of Segorbe, in the province of Castellón, very close to the town of Gátova, in Valencia, in the heart of the Sierra de la Calderona, near the natural park of the same name. One person died after entering the sea last night in the Castellón municipality of Benicarló, according to the Provincial Firefighters Consortium.
The fire command post was established last night at the Gátova Town Hall and 11 units and a fire truck from the Generalitat’s forest firefighters, as well as four firefighter teams from the Valencia and Castellón consortia, were mobilized. The Emergency Coordination Center has established situation 1 of the Special Plan against forest fire risk, which is set when a fire can seriously affect forest assets or slightly affect the population and non-forest assets, and extraordinary means may be necessary for its extinction.
Night of hard work at #IFSegorbe by the entire joint extinction device of @BombersDipcas @BombersValencia and @GVAbforestals. Aerial means will join early in the morning. pic.twitter.com/NBPGpu9Y5E
— Bombers Dipcas (@BombersDipcas) August 21, 2026
The mayor of Gátova, Jesús Salmerón, explained on social media that with the first light of day this Friday, aerial means have joined, which together with the drop in temperatures will improve conditions for extinguishing the fire. For now, traffic remains interrupted on the CV-25 road as it passes through the municipality of Altura due to the fire. The fire has two flanks and is evolving through an area of difficult terrestrial access, according to the extinction services.
The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) explained that the storms recorded yesterday afternoon in the fire area were dry or with little precipitation — only 0.2 liters per square meter were recorded at the Segorbe station — and posted images on social media of the lightning strike closest to the fire, which occurred at 20:06 hours, with positive polarity and an intensity of more than 37.6 kiloamperes.
Aemet detailed that the night has been cool in the area, with temperatures below 20 degrees for almost the entire night — with a minimum of 18.2 — humidity above 70%, and light wind, with gusts of 10 kilometers per hour from the southwest.
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Today’s forecast, according to Aemet, is that the wind will shift to a southeast breeze, with gusts of 30 km/h from midday, a maximum temperature of 28 degrees, and humidity not very low, around 50% or slightly lower at midday in Segorbe.
In addition to the Segorbe forest fire, there were also outbreaks caused by lightning strikes — more than 4,000 discharges fell, according to Generalitat sources — in Tavernes de la Valldigna that were extinguished, helped by the rains. Also those in Alcudia de Veo, already stabilized, and the one in Siete Aguas, already extinguished.
The Provincial Firefighters Consortium also reported a man who died after entering the sea on Thursday night in the Castellón municipality of Benicarló. The forces were mobilized to the area after receiving the alert, around midnight, that a group of people had entered the sea in Benicarló and apparently one of them had disappeared.
Firefighters from the Baix Maestrat station and a rescue boat went to the beach to begin the search for the missing person. Finally, the forces found him on a stretch of coast but, after resuscitation attempts by medical personnel, his death was confirmed, for reasons that have not been specified.
