Firefighting crews battling a devastating wildfire in Spain’s southeastern Almería province were set to begin pushing back against the blaze on Saturday, according to the region’s top emergency official — even as additional villages were cleared out overnight as a safety precaution.
Driven by strong winds, the fire exploded across the landscape on Friday, overtaking some victims before they could escape. Autopsies have been performed on all 12 bodies recovered near the forested district of Bédar, north of Los Gallardos where the fire originated, though none of the victims have yet been officially identified.
Antonio Sanz, who heads emergency services for the Andalusia region, spoke to reporters at the perimeter of the disaster zone, describing the fire as still “complex” and continuing to spread. However, he praised firefighting crews for successfully preventing the blaze from crossing a major highway toward more densely populated towns along the coast.
“So far we have been engaged in defense work, to prevent advances,” Sanz said. “Today is the first day we will be able to work on attacking the fire.”
The majority of those who died are believed to be citizens of Britain and Belgium, along with one Spanish national. Eight people sustained injuries in the fire, four of them critically, and all remain hospitalized in Seville.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine in Almería released a statement Friday evening noting that identification of the victims has not yet been possible. “No one has been identified yet, nor is it possible at this time to determine the age or sex of the deceased,” the institute stated.
Forensic samples have been sent to Madrid for further testing and comparison against DNA provided by the victims’ families.
Officials have sought to temper fears of a dramatically higher death toll, pointing out that only seven people have been formally reported missing by their families, compared to 23 informal reports that had circulated by Friday.
By late Friday, more than 1,400 residents had been evacuated as the fire continued to burn near Los Gallardos, with precautionary evacuations also carried out in several communities surrounding Bédar.
More than 500 firefighters and emergency personnel are working the scene, including regional fire crews, military soldiers, and 19 specialists from a national firefighting unit. Emergency officials said teams are focusing their efforts on the western edge of the fire, where the flames are burning most intensely and spreading most rapidly. In total, 6,600 hectares have been consumed by the fire so far.
Sanz offered a cautiously optimistic update on overnight conditions: “The night has passed relatively well, within the complexity and dimensions of the fire. The fronts have remained less active and no new direct threats to inhabited areas have occurred.”
Those who witnessed the fire’s terrifying speed on Friday described scenes of disbelief. At one point, the fire advanced 15 kilometres in just two hours, according to the regional president.
Víctor Manuel Fernández, the parish priest serving Bédar and Los Gallardos, recounted that he had traveled to a neighboring village to lead Mass when the fire began. “You could see smoke but far away, in a corner of the municipality,” he said. “I figured they would put it out because our firefighters always react very rapidly. But when we came out of the Mass there was a cloud of black smoke and looking up at the mountains, the flames were devouring everything. It was a matter of minutes.”
