A wildfire roared through a remote expat community in southern Spain overnight, killing at least 12 people as victims tried to flee the flames in cars and on foot, authorities said Friday.
Wildfire Devastation
Eight people were injured and 23 missing, Andalusia’s regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno said. The blaze, one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires, broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near the Sierra de Los Filabres mountains in Almeria province, as the country has been dealing with soaring temperatures.
Most of the victims died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions, said Antonio Sanz, head of Andalusia’s emergency services. Some tried to escape via a dry riverbed that “turned into a death trap,” he said.
International Impact
Four victims were believed to be British nationals because the steering wheel of their burned-out car was on the right side, as with British vehicles, regional authorities said. Other unspecified nationals also were believed to be among the dead, and the death toll was expected to rise, authorities said.
Dean Taylor, a resident who divides his time between Spain and the U.K., said he managed to just barely escape the neighborhood by using back roads to get out. “It was quite terrifying,” Taylor said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s a very sad day, isn’t it? It’s devastating, really.”
The fire was still burning as of Friday afternoon. Some 150 firefighters and 220 soldiers from Spain’s military emergency unit were battling the blaze, which had consumed more than 3,200 hectares (7,900 acres) of forest and farmland.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences. “Immense sadness and desolation in the face of the terrible consequences of the fire affecting the province of Almeria,” he wrote on X.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Parts of Western Europe are facing their third heat wave in six weeks.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
