At least 12 people have been killed in a devastating wildfire tearing through southern Spain, with local officials confirming the fatalities on Friday. Dozens more remain missing as tragic accounts emerge of victims attempting to escape the inferno, including some who were trapped in a dry river bed.
The blaze, one of the region’s worst-ever wildfires, is raging near the town of Los Gallardos on the Costa de Almería. Around 150 emergency workers have been deployed to battle the forest fire, according to a statement from the regional government of Andalusia. Juanma Moreno, Andalusia’s regional leader, stated in a Friday news conference that at least 23 people are still unaccounted for.
Francisco Reyes, the mayor of Los Gallardos, described the situation as “terrifying” due to strong winds rapidly spreading the fire. Residents from Almocáizar and Terminar de Vedas have been evacuated, and authorities were moving to evacuate a nearby campsite housing 400 to 500 people, as the wind was pushing the fire westward, he told Reuters on Thursday.
Many of the victims tragically died while trying to flee the flames. An official named Sanz indicated that some individuals attempted to escape via a dry river bed, which proved to be a deadly “trap.” Four people died inside a vehicle, while seven others were killed on foot. Sanz said that ‘Everything suggests that the victims were mostly, if not entirely, foreign nationals, though naturally this cannot be confirmed until their identities are officially established.’
This wildfire marks Spain’s deadliest since 2005, when 11 firefighters lost their lives in Guadalajara province after a fire sparked by a barbecue. The current blaze is occurring amidst a summer of record-breaking temperatures across Europe, driven by heat waves that have brought extreme conditions unusually early in the year. Wildfires are also being battled by firefighters in Portugal and France.
The climate crisis is exacerbating these conditions, leading to hotter, drier weather that sets the stage for more intense fire seasons. Spain’s national weather service, AEMET, reported last month that national temperatures were 12.8 degrees Fahrenheit (7.1 Celsius) above average on some days. France and the UK also experienced record temperatures last month, with many French towns exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius). The Spanish meteorological office has issued further high-temperature warnings for parts of the Andalusia region, with authorities releasing videos of firefighters confronting large flames engulfing vegetation.
Jose Antonio Flores, a local resident, lamented the fire as a “disaster” for both the environment and the community, noting that a nearby house had completely burned. Ojeda, speaking to the Science Media Centre, highlighted the unusual scale of the fire, stating, “That’s a massive amount. There have been bigger fires, but this covers a huge area. It’s not normal for fires of this scale to occur in Mediterranean landscapes.”
Beyond Spain, emergency services are also tackling blazes in neighboring France, where thousands of hectares of land have burned near the Spanish border. In Portugal, recent wildfires produced smoke plumes so vast they were visible from space, according to the European Union. Europe is recognized as the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing more than twice the global average, as reported by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences via X, stating, “I want to convey my condolences to the families of those who died.” The human toll of the disaster is also evident in social media reports, with one woman posting on X about her brother missing after trying to escape through a valley with a group of 10 people, and another woman on Facebook unable to contact her parents after they mentioned evacuating on Thursday.
A woman based in the United States posted on X that her brother was missing after trying to escape the fire through a valley with a group of 10 people. Meanwhile, another woman said on Facebook she had been unable to make contact with her parents after they said they were evacuating on Thursday.
CNN’s Laura Paddison, Duarte Mendonca, Todd Symons, Diego Mendoza and Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting.
