MADRID: Eleven people were killed including four suspected to be British, and 19 were missing after a wildfire tore through a rugged area of southern Spain, authorities said on Friday (Jun 10).
Authorities said many of the victims may be foreign tourists visiting Bedar, a small whitewashed village in Los Gallardos district, but that they were still confirming their identities.
They described victims trying to flee the fast-moving blaze through difficult, forested terrain, in one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires in recent years.
Located about 15km from Spain’s Mediterranean coast, Bedar is popular with foreign residents and tourists seeking a quieter alternative to the nearby beach resorts.
The head of the regional government of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, said four of the people who died were travelling in a right-hand drive car.
“They appear to have been British nationals and were burned to death inside the car,” he told Spanish radio, adding at least 19 people were still unaccounted for.
Bedar mayor Angel Francisco Collado said he urged some residents to flee their homes, “even those who did not want to leave”.
However, seven people died while trying to escape on foot and two others were taken to hospital, he added.
Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves more likely and more intense.
WINDS FAN FLAMES
About 500 firefighters and troops battled the inferno northeast of Almeria in the southern Andalusia region, which witnesses said may have been started by a power line that fell and set scrubland on fire.
It erupted as temperatures across heat-battered Spain and France were predicted to hit 40°C on Friday, with forest fires blazing in both countries.
“At the moment, we have confirmed that 11 people have lost their lives in the Los Gallardos fire; there are no words for such grief,” Antonio Sanz, the Andalusia region’s minister for emergencies, said in a video posted on X.
“Everything indicates that the deceased are, mostly or entirely, foreign nationals,” Sanz added, with authorities still confirming their identities.
He described the fire as a “very complex, very fast-moving” outbreak in a region with many ravines where it is difficult to use heavy machines and homes in forested areas.
Strong winds helped spread the blaze overnight but had calmed in the morning, although forecasters predict they will pick up and change direction later in the day, Sanz said.
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