The head of 112 states that Pradas's second-in-command asked for help for his "friends and acquaintances"

ValenciaThe head of operations for the 112 emergency hotline, Manuel Villalba, confirmed this Tuesday that on the afternoon of the storm, the then-regional secretary for Emergencies and second-in-command of the Valencian Ministry of Justice and the Interior, Emilio Argüeso, went to the 112 call center to request that emergency calls be processed. This was explained by the witness, according to judicial sources familiar with his testimony. The emergency worker's words corroborate the information revealed in the messages that the right-hand man of former councilor Salomé Pradas provided to the judge shortly before her testimony in April of last year. The list shows how people she knew told her they were not getting a response from 112.

The technician also explained that Argüeso's requests for help for his friends and acquaintances occurred just as the 112 emergency service was facing an "unmanageable" volume of calls. He stated that, in his opinion, there wasn't a system failure, but rather a line overload due to the high number of calls being received. According to his account, between 8:00 and 9:30 a.m., the calls originated from the town of Utiel, but from 10:00 a.m. onwards, calls from Chiva and Buñol were added. After a decrease around 1:00 p.m., the requests for assistance skyrocketed from 2:00 p.m. onwards, with reports of overflowing water in Manises. By the afternoon, the demand was unmanageable. Manuel Villalba also emphasized that the Cecopio (Emergency Coordination Center) officials only requested information from him around 2:00 p.m. Specifically, during a visit to the Emergency Center by the then Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, accompanied by her former deputy, Emilio Argüeso, and the Deputy Director General of Emergencies, Jorge Suárez. Two recordings exist of this moment. The second, from 1:56 p.m., shows a 112 emergency services worker commenting that the most dangerous thing "isn't the rain itself, but what's in the ravines." Pradas responds: "Exactly, that's what worries us most at that moment." In another excerpt, Pradas can be seen taking notes while Suárez tells her: "We've issued a hydrological alert for the Magro River, it's the most immediate, and for the Poio ravine." The Deputy Director General is referring to the alert issued for the Magro River at 11:45 a.m. and for the Poio ravine at 12:30 p.m. Despite the alert, Pradas and Argüeso left the Emergency Center to visit the town of Carlet – located on the banks of the Magro River – and the Cecopio (Emergency Coordination Center) was not convened until 5:00 PM.