By
July 14, 2026 / 9:14 AM EDT
/ CBS News
Add CBS News on Google
A British man caught up in Spanish wildfires has described how he survived the inferno as his wife and friends died trying to escape.Malcolm Timbrell, 70, lived with his wife Annette Kilgore, 69, in the village of Bedar, in the Almeria province of southeast Spain. The area was scorched by wildfires on July 9 that killed 13 people, one of the deadliest fires in the country's history. Timbrell spoke to CBS News' partner network BBC News on Monday — outside his blackened, destroyed hillside home — about the ordeal."You'd never imagine it could happen," he said, "and when it does, and you're the only survivor, then you're left in a situation of, 'What can I do?'"Timbrell and Kilgore moved to Spain after several years sailing together. Having both previously lost partners to terminal illness, they were together for 17 years.They had hoped to spend the rest of their lives together in the southern Spanish hills of Andalusia.
