Former Valencian Emergency Councillor Salomé Pradas has accused ex-President Carlos Mazón of lying about his actions on the afternoon of the October 29, 2024 DANA floods, which killed 229 people. In an interview on La Sexta's Salvados program, Pradas details communication difficulties with Mazón and regrets his absence from the Cecopi until 20:28. She exonerates herself from key decisions and dissociates Mazón from the delay in sending the ES-Alert.
Salomé Pradas, 47, from Castellón, served as Valencian Emergency Councillor during the October 29, 2024 DANA floods, which claimed 229 lives in the Comunitat Valenciana. In her first interview since the disaster and her imputation for manslaughter and negligent injuries alongside Emilio Argüeso, given to Salvados and aired on November 30, 2025, she targets Carlos Mazón, who resigned on November 3.
Pradas accuses Mazón of denying she informed him about the ES-Alert, sent at 20:11, after 155 deaths. "I mustered the courage to tell him over the phone to tell the truth, not for me, but for the victims," she states. She recounts failed contact attempts: calls at 16:29 and 19:10 went unanswered as Mazón had his phone in his backpack during a four-hour lunch at El Ventorro with journalist Maribel Vilaplana. Chief of staff José Manuel Cuenca instructed her before 14:00 not to disturb the president.
At the critical moment, with the Forata dam at risk affecting 80,000 people, Pradas could not reach Mazón. She informed him of the ES-Alert decision during the 19:47 call. Mazón arrived at Cecopi at 20:28. "My biggest mistake was not telling Mr. Mazón to come immediately. It would have been necessary for the highest representative of the Generalitat to be at Cecopi," she regrets.
She exonerates herself by pointing to operations chief José Manuel Basset for the 20-25 minute debate on the ES-Alert, sent due to Forata and not the Poyo ravine, and criticizes missing data from Aemet and CHJ, a theory rejected by Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra. She apologizes to the victims and criticizes their treatment, becoming emotional recalling the pain from Mazón's Congress statements.
