Immediate Post-Event Mobilization
At one o'clock, a loud firecracker ends the tomato fight. Workers quickly arrive to start cleaning the streets and help people move to river showers. The town council works with provincial firefighters to send twelve water trucks and eighty cleaning workers into the streets. High-pressure hoses use river water to wash away tomato pulp and save drinking water.
Cleaning crews wash Calle del Cid and Plaza del Pueblo first. Thick tomato pulp covers these central streets after the fight. Workers spray water on plastic covers before taking them down from balconies and shop windows. Free outdoor shower booths and eye wash stations near the river park help clean tired visitors.
Drainage Filtration and River Protection
Before the fight, workers place strong wire grates and filters over all street storm drains. These metal grates catch tomato skins and seeds while red water drains away. Dedicated workers shovel thick tomato pulp off the metal grates into large waste bins so drains do not clog.
Environmental rules stop red tomato pulp from flowing into the local river. Trucks carry more than one hundred tons of collected tomato pulp to regional compost farms. Water sensors check the drains so tomato acid does not hurt town water treatment plants.
Stone Masonry Sanitization and Chemical Action
Ripe tomatoes contain natural fruit acids that clean stone streets like soap. Tomato acid loosens grease and dirt from old granite cobblestones during the festival. Fast water washing removes the tomato acid quickly, leaving the street stones bright and clean.
Homeowners wash house walls, stone doors, and iron railings to protect them from acid. Street sweeper trucks with wire brushes sweep up seeds stuck between street stones. Crews spray fresh plant sprays in street corners to stop sour tomato smells.
Urban Restoration and Transit Resumption
By four o'clock in the afternoon, workers have cleaned ninety percent of the red pulp from the streets. Big water trucks wash Calle del Cid a second time so the stones are not slippery. Carpenters take down wooden street fences and security gates before the evening.
Police officers reopen town roads to cars and buses in the late afternoon. Local shops and bakeries open for normal business the next morning. Spanish city planners praise this quick town cleanup as a model for large public festivals.
