Provincial Council of Castellón: aid to 17 municipalities due to the fire

The Provincial Council of Castellón has announced grants with a maximum amount of €940,000 to compensate for the non-deferrable expenses of municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants affected by the fire that started on 25 July 2026 in the municipal district of La Vall d’Uixó. The call was approved by the Governing Board in an extraordinary and urgent session held on 4 August 2026, and its extract is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Castellón (BOP), No. 96, of 11 August 2026, with reference 03639-2026-U.

The announcement is published in accordance with Articles 17.3.b and 20.8.a of Law 38/2003, of 17 November, General Subsidies Law, and the full text can be consulted in the National Subsidies Database under identifier BDNS 924122. The regulatory bases were approved at the same session of the Governing Board and published in BOP Castellón No. 94, of 6 August 2026. The aid is aimed at repairing municipal infrastructure and services in the area declared Especially Damaged by the fire, which caused preventive evacuations in several localities.

Beneficiaries: two groups and seventeen municipalities

Municipalities in the province with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, according to the official population figures of the National Statistics Institute in force at the time of approval of the call, as well as minor local entities, may be beneficiaries. Based on the criteria of the Rapid Response Commission for the Restoration of Municipal Services, two groups are distinguished:

• Group A (directly affected, with surveillance operations, infrastructure defence, protection of inhabited areas and perimeter consolidation): La Vilavella, Betxí, Artana, Alfondeguilla, Eslida, Aín, Alcudia de Veo, Tales and Nules.
• Group B (affected by preventive evacuation): Torralba del Pinar, Ayódar, Fuentes de Ayódar, Azuébar, Almedíjar, Villamalur, Suera and Chóvar.

Purpose and eligible expenses

The purpose is to adopt measures for the repair of infrastructure, equipment and facilities linked to municipally owned services affected by the fire, whose suspension disturbs the living conditions of the population or the provision of essential public services. The eligible actions must be carried out between 25 July and 30 October 2026, and current expenses will be charged to chapters 1 and 2 of the municipal budget.

In group A, financing is provided for infrastructure and road network repairs, works that do not involve investment (earthworks, trench filling), hiring of personnel, machinery and equipment, services to mitigate the effects of the incident, and extraordinary costs of transport, accommodation and subsistence. Group B covers the extraordinary costs of preventive evacuation assumed by the city councils of the evacuated municipalities.

Deadline, application and justification

Applications may be submitted for one month from the day following the publication of the extract in the BOP of Castellón, exclusively electronically through the specific procedure enabled on the Diputación’s electronic headquarters (dipcas.sedelectronica.es), within the catalog of procedures for subsidies to public administrations. Applications submitted through any other means will not be accepted.

Payment will be made after justification by means of financial statements in accordance with the official model of the Diputación, and beneficiaries must be up to date with their tax obligations and with Social Security. The agreement, which exhausts administrative remedies, may be appealed by means of an appeal for reversal within one month or contentious-administrative appeal before the Administrative Law Courts of Castellón within two months.

The call, signed by the deputy delegate for Cooperation, Héctor Folgado Miravet, represents a first economic relief for the smallest municipalities in the province, which must address with limited resources the effects of a fire that left a particularly damaged area and forced the evacuation of residents. Residents of the 17 beneficiary municipalities will see essential services and the transport, accommodation and subsistence costs arising from the disaster financed, in a financial year in which the Diputación allocates nearly one million euros to the recovery of the affected territory.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Castellón, No. 96, 11 August 2026, Local Administration section (official reference: 03639-2026-U).