A wildfire that swept through the hills of southeastern Spain has become one of the country's deadliest in memory, killing at least 13 people and leaving nearly two dozen missing as it raced through villages that are home to large communities of foreign residents.
The toll
The fire broke out on July 9 near Los Gallardos, in Almería province, and by this week authorities put the death toll at 13, with 23 people missing and nine injured. Regional officials have described it as the deadliest wildfire in Andalusia and one of the worst in Spain's recorded history.
Many of the dead were foreign nationals living in the inland villages of Bédar and Los Gallardos, behind the coastal resort town of Mojácar, a stretch of Almería popular with British and other European expatriates. British nationals are among the victims; news reports have put the number of Britons killed at around five, though a full accounting was still under way. Some people died after leaving their cars to flee on foot, caught by flames that moved faster than they could escape.
A fire driven by heat
The blaze erupted during an intense heat wave across Western Europe, with high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds combining to create dangerous fire conditions. Hundreds of firefighters and soldiers from Spain's military emergency unit were deployed to battle the fire, which consumed thousands of hectares of forest and farmland before it was brought under control.
Southern Europe has faced a punishing summer of heat, and Spain in particular has seen a series of large wildfires. Scientists have long warned that hotter, drier conditions lengthen and intensify the fire season across the Mediterranean.
What comes next
Officials were still working to identify victims and account for the missing, and the cause of the fire had not been formally confirmed, with early attention on a possible downed power line. For the tight-knit expatriate communities of the Almería hills, the disaster has been devastating, turning a quiet corner of the Spanish countryside into the scene of one of the nation's worst fire tragedies. Casualty figures come from Spanish authorities and may be revised as the recovery continues.
