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WILDFIRE

VIDEO: Passengers trapped on train engulfed by flames during huge wildfire in Spain

Fifteen people were injured in eastern Spain on Tuesday after the train on which they travelled had to stop for two hours on the tracks due to a huge wildfire, with authorities and affected passengers still trying to understand why they received no prior warning.

Published: 18 August 2022 15:41 CEST
fire train bejis spain
Upon reaching the forest fire in Bejís, 70 kilometres northwest of Valencia, the train’s conductor decided to stop the vehicle, having not been warned beforehand that the tracks ran directly through the wildfire. Screenshot: Twitter

Forty-nine passengers on board a train travelling between Valencia and Zaragoza on Tuesday August 16th watched in horror as for two hours they were surrounded by flames near the town of Bejís, which is currently experiencing one of Spain’s worst wildfires this year. 

Upon reaching the forest fire in Bejís, 70 kilometres northwest of Valencia, the train’s conductor decided to stop the vehicle, having not been warned beforehand that the tracks ran directly past the wildfire. 

Footage shared online by some of the passengers reflects their concerns as they approached the area and how upon grinding to a halt, many of them panicked as the flames were only metres away. 

One passenger exclaimed “we have to call 112 (Spain’s emergency services)” as she struggled to gasp for air, while another person commented on how the train should go back. 

“There were around 60 people on board and our lives were in danger at all times,” one passenger told Spanish national daily El Mundo.   

“What we don’t understand is why the train left Valencia in the first place as the wildfire had already started the night before,” the 30-year-old woman added.

The passenger in question has told the Spanish press that she approached the engine driver to ask if it would be possible to go past the blaze, who responded that it would be. 

But the passengers soon noticed that the temperature in the carriages began to increase dramatically, that smoke was entering the train and that the fire was “literally next to them”. 

According to the woman’s account, it was at this point that the engine driver stopped the train, tried to activate the lever to go back but that it appeared to be stuck, at which point the driver “lost the plot completely”. 

Fifteen people were injured during the incident, six of them with burns and the rest due to smoke inhalation. Two of the passengers suffered serious burns whilst one is currently in critical condition.

According to Spain’s state-owned rail company Renfe and railway infrastructure manager Adif, neither entity was informed that the wildfire in Bejís, which has so far burned more than 6,000 hectares of land, was close to the tracks.

Adif added that the engine driver stopped the train after coming across “an intense amount of ash and smoke” and that she proceeded to contact management for clarification on what to do next.

According to their statement, several passengers got off the train despite their warnings not to do so, in some cases using the hammers to break the windows. It was at this point that most injuries were reportedly sustained. 

Renfe has opened an internal investigation to clarify the events.

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TRAVEL NEWS

New Barcelona-Paris train link delayed until after Olympics

A direct rail route between Barcelona and Paris which was set to launch in time for the Summer Olympics has been delayed due to setbacks in France, as has another new sleeper train between Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Published: 16 April 2024 13:05 CEST
New Barcelona-Paris train link delayed until after Olympics

The Renfe train link set to connect Barcelona with Paris will not be ready for the Olympic Games starting in the French capital in July, as was initially planned, due to administrative delays in France.

Spain’s Transport Minister, Óscar Puente, has indicated that the line is now scheduled to be up and running by the end of the year.

Renfe is Spain’s state-owned rail company. In 2023, it began offering cross-border services to Lyon and Marseille.

The delay comes after news that another international route, linking Barcelona with Amsterdam, is also set to be postponed due to technical problems on the French side. This is because the train would have to pass through France on its way to the Dutch capital.

However, such long administrative delays do seem somewhat surprising when the French publicly owned rail company SNCF is the operator, the infrastructure manager, and the regulatory body in charge of approving trains.

READ ALSO: New Spain-France train routes: What you need to know

In Spain these roles are separated between the operator Renfe, the infrastructure manager Adif, and the Railway Safety Agency (Agencia de Seguridad Ferroviaria).

After SNCF broke up a joint venture with Renfe that offered high-speed services between both countries two years ago, the Spanish company has been running the Barcelona-Lyon and Madrid-Barcelona-Marseille routes alone since the summer of 2023. However, SNCF is currently the only one with a direct rail link between the Catalan capital and Paris.

Renfe’s aim was to reach Paris by summer of 2024 to coincide with the Olympic Games in the French capital.

In 2012, Renfe and SNCF jointly operated train routes between Spain and France (with each operator managing their country’s route) but this alliance ended in 2022.

Barcelona-Amsterdam route

The Barcelona-Paris route is not the only to be stopped in its tracks due to French delays.

The planned night route between the Catalan capital and Amsterdam will be run by the European Sleeper company, but it is also having problems getting approved. According to the railway company, France is obstructing the launch of the service, which is scheduled to start in 2025.

The train has to pass through France, but the French railway line is reportedly overcrowded, authorities claim, delaying the start of the route.

“It’s not easy to get a place on the timetable there,” Elmer van Buuren, co-founder of European Sleeper, explained recently on Dutch radio station BNR.

Van Buuren said the French rail network is overcrowded and undergoing extensive renovations and repairs after years of delays. “This kind of work is mainly done at night, so it clashes in terms of priorities,” van Buuren said of his company, specialists in night sleeper train travel.

“The French will have to make room,” he added.

Another international sleeper train (the Nightjet) which promised a direct link between Barcelona and Zurich by the end of 2024 has also had its plans put on hold, but Austrian operator ÖBB has not disclosed the reasons why Spain is no longer on its route map. 

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