More than 15,000 residents and visitors were forced to leave their homes as a major wildfire swept through the Sierra de Espadán region of Castellón. The blaze began on 25 July 2026 in La Vall d’Uixó and spread amid intense westerly winds, with high temperatures and severe drought adding to the danger. Initial reports said people had been evacuated from 14 municipalities and parts of two others. RTVE later put the total at approximately 16,000 people from 18 municipalities.
Firefighters described the situation as overwhelming. At times, the scale and intensity of the flames surpassed the capacity of firefighting services. The Consorcio de Castellón shared footage of the fire, while aerial firefighting units resumed operations on Sunday morning. Crews hoped falling temperatures and slower winds would help contain the blaze. Later assessments put the burned area at approximately 9,600 hectares in and around the Parque Natural de la Sierra de Espadán. RTVE reported that the fire had burned close to 10,000 hectares, making it the third-largest wildfire in the Valencian Community over the previous decade.
About 3,688 hectares burned inside the natural park, roughly 12% of its surface. Evacuations affected La Vilavella, Artana, Eslida, Tales, Artesa, a district of Onda, Aín, Alcudia de Veo, Alfondeguilla, Sueras, Torralba, Villamalur, Fuentes de Ayódar and Chóvar, as well as neighborhoods in La Vall d’Uixó and Betxí. Mountain homes across the region were also cleared. Eslida, Chóvar, Aín, Alcudia de Veo and Fuentes de Ayódar lie entirely within the protected park; four other evacuated municipalities are partly within it.
Regional president Juanfran Pérez Llorca said many evacuees had been staying in second homes before returning to their core residences. Others took shelter with relatives or friends. Sports centers in Nules, Moncofa and Onda opened to accommodate people displaced by the fire, with another planned in Segorbe. Six people required urgent medical attention; three were hospitalized for smoke inhalation at La Plana hospital. Several roads linking affected towns were closed as a precaution.
Local authorities arranged for dependent residents from the hardest-hit areas to be moved to a care facility in Borriana. Tania Baños, mayor of La Vall d’Uixó, said residents’ safety remained the priority. She praised the community’s response and voiced concern about the damage to the region’s way of life. Authorities later confirmed that the fire was deliberately caused. In an RTVE report nearly three months after it began, investigators were still working to identify the person responsible.
The fire also damaged wildlife habitat in the natural park. In October, Generalitat environmental agents rebuilt two nests belonging to the Bonelli’s eagle, or Aquila fasciata, which the wildfire had destroyed. The Grupo de Intervención en Altura carried out the work in coordination with the Servicio de Vida Silvestre y Red Natura 2000. The effort formed part of recovery measures led by the Generalitat’s environmental department. The intervention extended the response beyond emergency measures to include habitat restoration.
The fire affected communities across the Sierra de Espadán, a impressive protected natural area stretching from Castellón’s mountainous interior toward the Mediterranean coast. The emergency followed a pattern of severe wildfires in Spain in recent years, often worsened by extreme weather and dry conditions. Similar mass evacuations and emergency responses were reported during earlier fires in Castellón, as detailed in coverage of earlier large-scale evacuations in the region.
The fire also prompted a cultural response: musician Alberto Lucendo and his label, El Manto, organized a solidarity recording project inspired by sounds captured in the Serra d’Espadà before the fire. Firefighting and recovery efforts continued, while the impact on local communities, infrastructure and the natural environment remained a basic concern for the region.
