Eleven people were killed including four suspected to be British, and 19 were missing after a wildfire tore through a rugged area of southern Spain, authorities said Friday.<\/p>\n
Authorities said many of the victims may be foreign tourists visiting Bedar, a small whitewashed village in Los Gallardos district, but that they were still confirming their identities.<\/p>\n
They described victims trying to flee the fast-moving blaze through difficult, forested terrain, in one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires in recent years.<\/p>\n
Located about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Spain’s Mediterranean coast, Bedar is popular with foreign residents and tourists seeking a quieter alternative to the nearby beach resorts.<\/p>\n
The head of the regional government of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, said four of the people who died were travelling in a right-hand drive car.<\/p>\n
“They appear to have been British nationals and were burned to death inside the car,” he told Spanish radio, adding at least 19 people were still unaccounted for.<\/p>\n
Bedar mayor Angel Francisco Collado said he urged some residents to flee their homes, “even those who did not want to leave”.<\/p>\n
However seven people died while trying to escape on foot and two others were taken to hospital, he added.<\/p>\n
Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves more likely and more intense.<\/p>\n
– Winds fan flames –<\/p>\n
About 500 firefighters and troops battled the inferno northeast of Almeria in the southern Andalusia region which witnesses said may have been started by a power line that fell and set scrub land on fire.<\/p>\n
It erupted as temperatures across heat-battered Spain and France were predicted to hit 40C on Friday, with forest fires blazing in both countries.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“Everything indicates that the deceased are, mostly or entirely, foreign nationals,” Sanz added, with authorities still confirming their identities.<\/p>\n
He described the fire as a “very complex, very fast-moving” outbreak in a region with many ravines where it is difficult to use heavy machines and homes in forested areas.<\/p>\n
Strong winds helped spread the blaze overnight but had calmed in the morning although forecasters predict they will pick up and change direction later in the day, Sanz said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sanz also said eight people had been injured, four seriously, and that about 3,150 hectares (7,780 acres) of forest and farmland had been scorched.<\/p>\n
Around 800 people were evacuated, including nearly 200 who being accommodated in shelters, he added.<\/p>\n
– ‘Deeply saddened’ –<\/p>\n
Witnesses told authorities the blaze may have started after a power line fell, igniting dry vegetation before spreading rapidly through surrounding woodland, the regional government said.<\/p>\n
Authorities have not confirmed the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n
Roads were closed and residents evacuated as the inferno spread, with about 150 people housed in a cultural centre.<\/p>\n
Spain’s Military Emergency Unit (UME) was sent to join the firefighters.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X that he was “deeply saddened and devastated by the terrible consequences of the wildfire”.<\/p>\n
He said in May that Spain would deploy its largest-ever summer wildfire response this year.<\/p>\n
Spain is sweltering in a heatwave, with scorching temperatures triggering orange weather warnings \u2013 the second highest level — across parts of Andalusia in recent days.<\/p>\n
Spain has experienced increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40C, fuelling conditions for major wildfires.<\/p>\n
Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares (one million acres) of land in Spain last year, the highest figure recorded for the country by the European Forest Fire Information System.<\/p>\n
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