{"id":542844,"date":"2026-07-10T14:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542844\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:38:10","slug":"wildfires-in-southern-spain-kill-at-least-11-people-attempting-to-flee-by-car-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542844\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires in southern Spain kill at least 11 people \u2018attempting to flee by car\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least \u200c11 people died attempting to flee a wildfire in southern Spain<\/a>, and 19 were missing, with firefighters on Friday still battling to bring one of the country\u2019s deadliest blazes on record<\/a> under control. <\/p>\n

One Spaniard was among \u200bthe victims and the rest appeared to be foreign nationals who ignored instructions to shelter in place, trying instead to flee by car as flames spread rapidly through a wooded area around the town of Los Gallardos in Almeria province, said Antonio Sanz, head of emergencies in the Andaluc\u00eda region. <\/p>\n

The area is a popular holiday destination and home to many foreigners, especially the French, Britons and Belgians. Four people, who appeared \u200bto be British because the steering wheel of their car was on the right-hand side, died in one vehicle, he said. <\/p>\n

Seven others were found dead after apparently abandoning their cars and attempting to escape on \u2060foot along a route that was not part of the evacuation plan. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences have been terrible. Everything seems to indicate that, in the case of \u200cthe \u200cdead, \u200bthe majority \u2013 or all of them \u2013 are foreign nationals,\u201d Sanz said.<\/p>\n

The circumstances resemble those in neighbouring Portugal in June 2017, when a huge wildfire during a heatwave killed more than 60 people and injured dozens more, with half of the victims burned to death \u2060in their cars as they tried to flee.<\/p>\n

A series of early summer heatwaves has left large parts of Spain \u200bparched and vulnerable to any spark, triggering an early start to wildfire season. So far this year, about 57,000 hectares (140,850 acres) have burned, about half the annual average for the \u200cpast two decades and making up 40 per cent of all the area \u200bburned in the European Union, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.<\/p>\n

Last year, a record heatwave in August provoked the worst wildfire season in three decades, \u2060charring 330,000ha, an area twice the size of London. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually \u2060don\u2019t see these fires until August. They\u2019re starting \u200bearlier now because the vegetation dries out sooner,\u201d Roman Garcia, a forest firefighter from Salamanca, said on state broadcaster TVE. <\/p>\n

As authorities sought to identify the dead and track down the missing, anxious relatives from around the world posted messages on social media and local forums. One woman said her daughter, who was driving a red Ford Fiesta and had her dog with her, was missing. <\/p>\n

Another person from the United States said her brother had been among a group of 10 people who tried to escape through a valley next to a stream. She shared the co-ordinates and asked emergency services to look for him. <\/p>\n

Pedro Ridao, mayor of the nearby town of Antas, told TVE the fire was believed to have started when a power cable came loose and fell \u200con a patch of dry scrubland on \u2060Thursday. <\/p>\n

However, a spokesperson for utility company Endesa ruled that out after technicians sent to inspect the cable found it carried no voltage. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was mainly the wind that was blowing in the afternoon that caused it to spread. As the afternoon wore on, we could see the fire was \u200cracing ahead, devouring farmhouses, holiday homes and cars, so we sprang into action,\u201d Ridao said.<\/p>\n

Prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said he felt \u201cenormous sadness and devastation\u201d. <\/p>\n

The death \u200btoll makes it Spain\u2019s deadliest wildfire since 2005, when 11 firefighters were killed in a blaze in the central province \u200bof Guadalajara that was sparked by a barbecue. <\/p>\n

That disaster prompted major changes to Spain\u2019s wildfire prevention and emergency response systems. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least \u200c11 people died attempting to flee a wildfire in southern Spain, and 19 were missing, with…\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-542844","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\/542844","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=542844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542844\/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=542844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}