{"id":542432,"date":"2026-07-10T08:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542432\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:36:12","slug":"wildfires-in-southern-spain-kill-12-emergency-agency-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542432\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires in southern Spain kill 12, emergency\u00a0agency says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelve people were reported killed in a wildfire in Almeria in southern Spain, <\/a>as about 150 firefighters battled the blaze which broke out amid soaring temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of people who died in the fire in Los Gallardos has risen to 12 after the confirmation of six more deaths,\u201d the regional government of Andaluc\u00eda said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The deaths took place in the hamlet of Bedar, the regional government said in a statement, adding that the fire injured at least six people, including a woman who suffered burns and another person with smoke inhalation who was taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

Four others were treated at the scene for minor burns and respiratory problems caused by heavy smoke.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not confirmed the cause of the fire, but witnesses told officials the blaze may have started after a power line fell, igniting dry vegetation before spreading rapidly through surrounding woodland.<\/p>\n

Roads were closed and buildings evacuated as the fire spread, with about 50 people housed in a cultural centre.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s military emergency unit, which is deployed in major emergencies, was due to join firefighting efforts in the coming hours.<\/p>\n

The head of the regional government of Andaluc\u00eda, Juanma Moreno, expressed his condolences to the families of the people who died, calling it \u201ca tragedy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts are heavy and we are devastated by grief,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

The wildfire comes as Spain suffers a heatwave, <\/a>with scorching temperatures triggering orange weather warnings \u2013 the second highest level \u2013 across parts of Andaluc\u00eda in recent days.<\/p>\n

Prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said in May that Spain would deploy its largest-ever summer wildfire response this year.<\/p>\n

Fire weather \u2013 a combination of heat, drought and strong wind \u2013 is increasing in some parts of all continents. Human-caused climate breakdown is responsible for a higher likelihood of fire and bigger burned areas in southern Europe, northern Eurasia, the US and Australia, with some scientific evidence of increases in southern China.<\/p>\n

Climate breakdown<\/a> has increased the wildfire season by about two weeks on average across the globe.<\/p>\n

Spain has experienced increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees, creating conditions for major wildfires.<\/p>\n

More than 393,000 hectares burned in Spain in 2025, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), making it the country\u2019s worst wildfire year in recent history. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twelve people were reported killed in a wildfire in Almeria in southern Spain, as about 150 firefighters battled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2885,42,43,2846,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-542432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-climate-change","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-spain","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}