Deadly wildfire in southern Spain kills at least 12, dozens missing

A wildfire near Los Gallardos in Almeria province killed at least 12 people, injured eight and left 23 missing as hundreds of firefighters battled it in southern Spain. The blaze broke out late Thursday in Andalusia and raced through a remote expat community and nearby tourist areas along the Mediterranean coast, turning escape routes into deadly choke points.

Most of the dead were foreign nationals, and four of the victims were British after responders found a car with right-hand steering. Seven people died after leaving their cars and trying to flee on foot, while others tried to escape through a dry riverbed. The fire had burned more than 3,200 hectares, or 7,900 acres, of forest and farmland by Friday.

Andalusia’s emergency chief Antonio Sanz and regional president Juan Manuel Moreno pointed to scrubland, esparto grass, heat and wind as factors in the fire’s spread across steep, dry ground in the Sierra de Los Filabres. About 150 firefighters and 220 soldiers from Spain’s Military Emergency Unit were deployed, but access remained difficult as strong winds threatened to worsen conditions.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia sent condolences as emergency crews searched for the missing and tried to keep the fire from jumping into more communities.

About 57,000 hectares had already burned in Spain by this point in the year, roughly half the annual average for the past two decades and about 40 percent of the area burned across the European Union. Last year, Spain’s worst wildfire season in three decades burned about 330,000 hectares, an area twice the size of London.