Tuéjar wildfire burns 690 hectares in Valencia as military mobilizes

Rapid spread across Tuéjar

A forest fire started shortly after 15:30 on Tuesday in the Cueva de las Palomas area near Tuéjar, in the interior of Valencia province. Pushed by wind gusts exceeding 30 km/h and moving through steep ravine terrain, the blaze spread rapidly across 690 hectares within a 17-kilometer perimeter in six hours. Flames moved from crop fields into dense mountain forest, shifting toward the municipality of Benagéber and approaching the Benagéber reservoir and the Turia canyon. In response, emergency authorities upgraded the alert level to Situation 2 under the Special Plan for Forest Fires (PEIF) shortly before 19:00, citing risks to local communities and property.

Emergency mobilization and military deployment

More than 200 emergency personnel deployed to contain the blaze, including forest brigades, local volunteer units from Chelva and Titaguas, and the Guardia Civil. The Spanish government activated 75 soldiers from the Third Battalion of the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) after 19:00 following a formal regional request, marking the unit's seventh deployment to a wildfire in the Valencian Community this season. Regional and national authorities dispatched 14 aerial firefighting assets alongside 40 ground crews equipped with fire engines to maintain containment lines overnight. Valencian President Juanfran Pérez Llorca maintained direct communication with Tuéjar Mayor Carlos Tarazón and provincial authorities while urging residents to follow official safety directives.

Please, maximum precaution and attention to instructions from official channels. Thank you to all the mobilized emergency teams who are working tirelessly to control the fires.

Evacuations and firefighter injuries

As the flames advanced toward populated pockets, emergency teams evacuated approximately 25 people from the Tuéjar campsite, the village of Fuente Gavera, and the Benagéber colony. Two Generalitat forest firefighters sustained injuries during field operations on Tuesday evening. One crew member suffered minor burns and was taken to La Fe Hospital in Valencia, while a second firefighter sustained minor contusions when a fire engine overturned and was transferred to Llíria Hospital. Emergencies Minister Juan Carlos Valderrama confirmed the hospitalizations following an emergency coordination meeting at the Advanced Command Post in Tuéjar.

Regrettably, we have had two accidents involving forest firefighters from the Generalitat Valenciana.

Environmental risk and weather conditions

The affected area forms part of the Alto Turia Biosphere Reserve, a protected territory spanning more than 67,000 hectares across Valencia and Cuenca that received UNESCO designation in 2019. The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) reported adverse conditions matching the 30-30-30 fire danger threshold, with local temperatures reaching 33°C, relative humidity at or below 30%, and southeast wind gusts topping 30 km/h. Meteorologists observed convective behavior in the smoke column, which rose vertically two kilometers before shifting southward aloft. Valencia Provincial Firefighters Consortium chief inspector Jorge Gil stated that diminishing winds overnight would assist suppression efforts before gusts were expected to shift again at 11:00 on Wednesday morning.