In the courtroom of Catarroja, the hearing continues on the devastating flood that claimed 229 lives in 2024. This time, particular attention was drawn to the testimony of an emergency response employee, who unexpectedly stated that on the day of the disaster, the team was unaware of the proposal to involve environmental protection specialists.
Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra is investigating how, exactly, coordination took place between various agencies during the critical moment. It turned out that despite regional government claims of readiness to deploy environmental agents to mitigate the aftermath, this information never reached the operations headquarters. As a result, firefighters specializing in forest fires had to be urgently sent to the site instead of environmental experts.
A week earlier, another emergency services worker had already mentioned that on the eve of the catastrophe, authorities in the autonomous region declined the proposal to add river control specialists to the team for the Poyo river. It was this body of water that became the source of the disaster, flooding entire districts, including Catarroja and Paiporta.
Regional authorities claimed they had done everything possible to prevent the tragedy, but new evidence now calls the effectiveness of their actions into question. There are also concerns as to why information about possible support was not communicated to all participants in the operation. The investigation continues to analyze the details to determine who, and at what stage, made the mistake that led to such far-reaching consequences.
