A palm tree collapsed early on Saturday morning on the Juan Aparicio seafront in Torrevieja, raising renewed concerns about the safety and maintenance of the town’s urban trees following a fatal incident late last year.
The tree, a medium-sized Washingtonia robusta measuring around three and a half metres in height, fell at approximately 8:00 a.m. It was located in the central median between Paseo de las Rocas and the access road to the Port of Torrevieja. Although the roadway is currently closed to traffic due to renovation works on the Levante breakwater promenade, it remains heavily used by pedestrians as a route to the Hombre del Mar monument.
According to initial observations, the palm split at its base. While there were no obvious external signs of red palm weevil infestation, the fibres at the base of the trunk were found to be completely disintegrated. Councillor for Parks and Gardens, Concha Sala, said that the presence of the pest cannot be ruled out and that a more detailed technical inspection will be required to determine the exact cause of the collapse.
There were no reports of strong winds either on Saturday or in the days leading up to the incident. However, recent rainfall exceeding 50 litres per square metre may have played a role, saturating the vegetation and increasing its weight. The incident occurred at dawn, a time when the promenade begins to fill with walkers and joggers. Just metres away, on the opposite side of the fall, is a glass-enclosed restaurant terrace on the busy stretch of seafront popularly known as Paseo de las Rocas.
Street cleaning workers from Acciona were the first to notice the fallen tree and alerted municipal services. Around ninety minutes later, technicians from Actúa (Orthem Group), the company contracted to maintain Torrevieja’s parks and gardens, arrived to remove the palm.
The incident comes just weeks after Mayor Eduardo Dolón ordered an extraordinary inspection of more than 5,000 palm trees listed in the municipal inventory. The review followed a fatal accident in November, when a palm tree fell onto the CV-905 dual carriageway, killing a young driver from Torrevieja. As a result of that inspection, around ten palm trees on the Vista Alegre promenade were removed due to potential structural risks.
Opposition parties PSOE and Sueña Torrevieja have demanded explanations from the local government over tree maintenance and monitoring, particularly under the recently awarded 15-year contract worth €113 million, which includes a workforce of more than 100 staff. It remains unclear whether the palm that fell on Saturday—pruned in September without any apparent warning signs—was among those scheduled for removal along the seafront.
