A policewoman who was traveling on the train that was trapped by the Bejís fire, to the driver: "Please, do something, get us out of here"

• Castellón More than 6,000 hectares burned in Bejís with "aggressive and voracious" fire that advances towards the province of Valencia

• Valencian Community The Vall d'Ebo fire burns 11,500 hectares and threatens the Marina Baja

Virginia,

a 30-year-old national police officer, was traveling on the train that was trapped by the fire in Bejís (Castellón).

This is her testimony of what happened.

"The train left at 4:22 p.m. from the North Station [

].

When we had been traveling for about 40 minutes we began to be able to see through the windows how there was a fire in the mountains;

a major fire, there were not four little flames.

I went to the driver and asked her what was happening and if she was going to go through that area.

She answers yes, that we continue the march and that there is no problem.

After this, I am calm.

I assume that the train will not circulate through the source of the fire and that we will surround it from another place.

I go to my seat and sit quietly.

Later, after about 20 minutes, all the passengers on the train began to notice how the temperature of the car began to rise, how smoke began to enter.

We look out the windows and see that we literally have the flames next to us.

I access the driver again and tell her: "

The train was still moving.

At that moment, she stops the train and tries to activate the lever to go back in the opposite direction and go backwards.

She realizes that this is impossible and she begins to run from one end of the car to the other, towards the engine behind.

At the other end, she tries to reverse the train.

We advance about five meters, she moves the train for about three seconds and it stops again.

The driver at that moment loses the papers completely.

He leaves the back cabin and begins to say that he doesn't know what to do, that he is waiting for orders from superiors, that he can't do anything, that the train is blocked... I take the initiative on the subject of work, because I am accustomed to experiencing stressful situations and knew that the others might not be prepared for that.

I try to reassure the people who go inside, since they were very scared to hear it.

All the passengers got up, there were children, elderly people, all screaming, crying, the smoke was already flooding the wagons, so the respiratory difficulty was important:

Train ticket in which Virginia.EM was traveling

After this, the driver looks so overwhelmed that we ask her to please open one of the doors so that we can run away, at least those of us who had the possibility of leaving.

At that moment, she pulls the lever, opens the door of one of the cars for us and a group of approximately nine people, all young, get out.

We jumped onto the tracks and started running away from the flames.

While I'm running I try to call 112 to report what happened, but there's no coverage, the calls are cancelled.

I keep running until I find a point where there is coverage and I call my father, who is a firefighter for the

I tell him to call

to mobilize troops, that there is a train with people who are in danger of being burned.

My father tells me that he has already contacted them, that they are going to call me.

I receive the call from the emergency services of Castellón and I indicate the exact point where we are.

The girl [the 112 operator] simply asks me if we are moving towards a safe point.

She indicates that we are running because the flames catch us.

I see two very small houses in the distance and I ask the boys not to give up, that we continue towards the houses because there are probably people there.

Arriving at the point where we locate the houses, we find three vans of residents of the town, Ragudo, who see us running in the distance and approach us.

They put us in the vehicles and take us to safety.

They take us to

where the field hospital had been set up and we are cared for by the

and sanitary personnel from the health center.

When we were in

, after having run three long kilometers, the driver must have been able to activate the lever and make the train return.

The injured [five are still hospitalized, three of them in serious condition] must be the ones who stayed on the train.

We are injured, but with bruises, from running and stuff.

I just got out of filing a complaint.

It has been classified as a crime of injuries.

The court will have to classify it as reckless, because there were 60 of us there and our lives were in danger at all times.

What we do not understand is why that train left

when the fire had started the night before.

They were aware of what was going on at all times."

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• Castellon

• Valencia

• Fires

• Articles Ana Maria Ortiz