Wildfire in southern Spain kills at least 12 people

A wildfire that broke out near Los Gallardos in Spain's southern Almeria province killed at least 12 people overnight into Friday and left 23 others missing. Eight people were injured in the blaze, which began in a semi-arid hamlet close to the Sierra de Los Filabres mountains.

Witnesses said a fallen power line ignited dry vegetation, allowing the fire to spread rapidly into surrounding forest and farmland.

Casualties and response Andalusian regional authorities said four British nationals and other foreign nationals were among the dead, while one victim was probably Spanish. Most victims died while attempting to flee, despite shelter-in-place instructions.

Antonio Sanz, president of Andalusia’s emergency services, said one group tried to escape via a dry riverbed that turned into a death trap. Seven people died on foot after abandoning their cars. Some 150 firefighters and 220 soldiers from Spain’s military emergency unit are fighting the fire.

Heat and prior fire seasons The deaths occurred during a period of intense heat across Western Europe. Spain recorded several days of record-setting temperatures in June that contributed to more than 1,000 excess deaths. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

France is experiencing its third heat wave of the summer, with temperatures reaching 40 C in western and central areas. A separate wildfire in the eastern Pyrenees near the Spanish border burned about 5,000 hectares and prompted the evacuation of more than 10,000 people before they were allowed to return.

Last year’s fire season in Spain burned more than 393,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. In 2017 a wildfire in Pedrogao Grande, Portugal, killed 66 people, with 47 dying on one road while trying to flee in their cars.