The son of a Belgian man who lost his life in deadly Spanish wildfires is challenging the official version of events, saying that authorities never warned his father or the others who perished before they attempted to flee.
Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt, a Belgian virologist, told reporters on Saturday that he was on the phone with his father — 63-year-old businessman Stanislas Verdonckt — just before 9 p.m. local time on Thursday evening as a wildfire bore down on the mountain village of Bedar, located in Spain’s southeastern Almeria province.
According to his 33-year-old son, Stanislas Verdonckt was among eight victims discovered dead in a valley beneath the Paraje el Curato area on the outskirts of Bedar, where he had owned a home for many years. Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt, who lives in Belgium, made the trip to Spain following the disaster and spoke with neighbors who survived.
He said no one in an official capacity told the group that the fire was approaching their location, nor were they advised whether it would be safer to remain indoors or attempt to evacuate.
“The people who died did not fail to follow any orders because no orders were given. No information was provided,” he said.
“They only started to run when the flames were almost upon them. That was their absolute last resort,” he added.
Spanish authorities have maintained that local officials and police either went door-to-door or called residents by phone to give instructions on whether to evacuate or shelter in place, based on how quickly the fire was moving in each area. Bedar’s mayor stated that he personally urged the group that included Stanislas Verdonckt to remain in their homes. The Andalusian regional government and the Spanish Civil Guard did not respond to requests for comment on Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt’s account.
In all, 12 people died while attempting to escape the wildfires as the blaze reached Bedar, which sits above the town of Los Gallardos. The victims were mostly foreign nationals, like Stanislas Verdonckt, along with one Spanish citizen. Their identities have not yet been officially confirmed, and firefighters were still working to bring the fires under control.
Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt described how the group of neighbors, including his father, first attempted to drive out Thursday night via a paved road, only to be turned back by the advancing flames.
“They couldn’t get through via the main road because they were not warned in advance. Nobody told them that the fire was coming from that direction, and when they tried to get out, it was too late,” he said.
The group then tried driving in the opposite direction along a dead-end dirt lane that runs along a mountainside, but that route also became impassable. They abandoned their vehicles and attempted to escape on foot.
“It was not a choice. They drove to the end of the trail, and when even that was in flames, some people chose to run and try to get into the valley,” he said.
A neighbor who managed to survive inside his home told Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt that the fire came close enough to touch the walls of the house. He described his father as an experienced hiker and photographer who was very familiar with the local terrain and fluent in Spanish.
During what turned out to be their last phone call, Stanislas Verdonckt calmly weighed his options, his son said. Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt described his father as someone who remained composed “even in the most desperate situations” and methodically went through his “plan A, B and C.”
“My father is one of the smartest people I know. He’s always very analytical and was just checking boxes: ‘Can we do this? Can we do that?’” he said. “At that point, it was just minutes before they were engulfed and they were trapped.”
