Nearly 3,500 police officers, in addition to 400 firefighters and a hundred members of Civil Protection watch over some Fallas de Valencia that are expected to be massive as there are no restrictions due to covid, due to the good weather, because the final days fall on the weekend and for being a holiday on Monday 20 in Madrid.
The Government Delegation in the Valencian Community will mobilize more than 1,800 National Police agents, a good part of them from other provinces, in an extraordinary security device “unprecedented in the history of the city”, as the delegate recently explained, Pilar Bernabe.
The plan contemplates specific security measures to prevent attacks, since Spain maintains the anti-terrorist alert level 4, and specific plans for the main events of these josefian festivities, such as the mascletaes, the nightly fireworks displays and the Nit del Foc del Saturday, the Flower Offering on Friday and Saturday or the final Cremà on Sunday.
Among the units that participate in this special security device are the canine handlers, the Special Security Operations Group (GOES) or the technical specialists in deactivation of explosive devices (TEDAX), in addition to anti-drone systems, which allow detecting, inhibiting and, where appropriate, neutralize the incursion of the so-called pirate drones into the airspace.
For its part, the Civil Guard will intensify the control of pyrotechnic products and will increase surveillance of the districts that surround Valencia and the accesses to the city.
The Government Delegation will promote the use of the Alertcops application for immediate reporting of any risk situation, especially in the Fallas’ country houses or in other spaces where large concentrations are expected.
Nearly 1,600 local police officers will be part of the special security operation, as well as 400 firefighters and about 100 Civil Protection volunteers.
In addition to all the events organized directly by the City Council, the protection plan includes a large number of private events, mostly promoted by the Fallas commissions, which are sometimes “large-scale and in complicated places”, such as the mascletà or la cremà of some important fallas, which bring together a large audience and in which the presence of the security and emergency forces “is essential”.
The Councilor for Festive Culture, Carlos Galiana, has highlighted the challenge this year of carrying out the castles and the Fallas concerts, which, by changing locations, have meant “extra work for everyone in recent months”.
La Nit del Foc, like the fireworks since Wednesday, will be shot from the area behind the Palau de Les Arts, a large space that will allow better visibility for the public and greater creative and artistic possibilities, and The Fallas concerts have returned, last Friday and Saturday, to Paseo de la Alameda, next to Viveros.
“By changing the location, the plans change completely. Also the conditions are different, since in both cases the buildings are much closer, and in the case of the castles people do not yet know where they prefer to see them from, which makes it difficult the planning of the event”, stated Galiana.
In addition, the Department of the Integral Water Cycle has reviewed and repaired, if necessary, a total of 1,835 water points in the city, to ensure that they are in good condition to be used in all Fallas acts, especially those who use fireworks.
On the other hand, the City Council installs six Violet Points this year, tents for information, awareness and prevention of sexist attacks, distributed throughout the city, and another 65 of these spaces will be set up in Fallas commissions, neighborhood entities and citizen associations.
These Violet Points will be operational from Wednesday to Sunday in the Town Hall, Mercat, Cánovas del Castillo and Landete squares, in Russafa, and this service will also be provided on the esplanade of the Plaza de Toros and on Blasco Ibáñez avenue, in the garden area at the intersection with Manuel Candela street.
According to the mayor, Joan Ribó, those of 2023 “are the first normal failures after these years of restrictions that, in addition, coincide precisely with the weekend, which will allow us to recover parties full of people coming from different points”.
