AFP, MADRID
A wildfire tearing through a Spanish village killed 11 people, including four who were burned in their car, authorities said yesterday, with more fire warnings as temperatures soar across southern Europe.Authorities said many of the victims might be foreign tourists and that the toll could increase. One official said four bodies found in one car could be British, adding that their identities were still being confirmed.About 400 firefighters and troops battled the inferno northeast of Almeria in the southern Andalusia region that witnesses said might have been started by a power line that fell and set scrub land on fire.Temperatures across Spain and France were predicted to hit 40°C yesterday and forest fires have erupted in both countries.Authorities originally said 12 people had died in the fire, but revised down the toll while adding that the search was going ahead for more victims around Bedar, a small village in Los Gallardos district.
“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 said four of the dead were in a right-hand drive car that indicated they were British, but that their identities were still being confirmed. Sanz said others appeared to have died as they tried to flee the flames.He described the fire as a “very complex, very fast-moving” outbreak in a region with many ravines and homes in forested areas.The Andalusia regional government said emergency services were submerged by more than 150 calls from people reporting the fire and that flames could be seen on a main highway passing near the village.Sanz also said eight people had been injured, four seriously, and that about 3,150 hectares of forest and farm land had been scorched.Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X that he was “deeply saddened and devastated by the terrible consequences of the wildfire.”The wildfire comes as Spain swelters in a heatwave, with scorching temperatures triggering orange weather warnings — the second-highest level — across parts of Andalusia in recent days.Spain has experienced increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40°C, fueling conditions for major wildfires.The country registered its third-warmest year on record last year, with 25 single-day heat records set during the period, national weather agency AEMET said.Earlier this month, hundreds of firefighters battled a wildfire that raged near the Costa Brava coast that draws tourists from across Europe and forced thousands to stay indoors.Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares of land in Spain last year, the highest figure recorded for the country by the European Forest Fire Information System.France has also been battling major wildfires in recent days. A fire blazing in the Drome region of southeast France for 10 days has burned 3,700 hectares of land.
