{"id":683934,"date":"2026-07-10T09:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683934\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:02:08","slug":"wildfires-in-southern-spain-kill-at-least-11-amid-soaring-temperatures-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683934\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires in southern Spain kill at least 11 amid soaring temperatures | Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least 11 people have been killed and 23 are unaccounted for after a fast-moving wildfire broke out in south-east Spain<\/a> as the country endures its second heatwave of the summer.<\/p>\n

The regional government of Andaluc\u00eda said the victims, four of whom are believed to be British, had died while trying to flee the flames near the village of B\u00e9dar in the Los Gallardos municipality of Almer\u00eda.<\/p>\n

Fire weather \u2013 a combination of heat, drought and strong wind \u2013 is increasing across much of the world. Human-caused climate breakdown is responsible for a higher likelihood of fire and bigger burned areas in southern Europe<\/a>, northern Eurasia, the US and Australia, with some scientific evidence of increases in southern China. Climate breakdown has increased the wildfire season by about two weeks on average across the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no words for such pain and I want to offer our condolences to the families of the dead,\u201d Antonio Sanz, the region\u2019s emergency minister, said on Friday morning. \u201cThis is terrible news and today the hearts of the people of Andaluc\u00eda are in mourning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanz said emergency services were fighting a \u201cterrible and very complex fire, which is spreading very fast\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said eight people had been injured \u2013 four of them seriously \u2013 and that the authorities were trying to establish whether there were any more victims of the fire, which broke out on Thursday.<\/p>\n

According to Sanz, those who had been found dead had tried to flee despite official advice recommending that people stay put. He added that the fire had not reached B\u00e9dar.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the decision to look for another way out through a ravine was a real trap,\u201d he said. \u201cFour people who died in one vehicle are thought to be British as the car they were found in was right-hand drive. Seven other people who had got out of their cars and were trying to walk out on a route that wasn\u2019t the evacuation route suffered terrible consequences. It would appear that most of them were also foreigners, but their identification has yet to be confirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardia Civil urged people trying to trace missing family members to go to their station in the nearby town of La Garrucha. \u201cThe main objective is to identify the missing people and to be able to take the DNA samples in order to identify the victims as quickly as possible,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Sanz said efforts to bring in heavy fire-fighting machinery were being hindered by limited access and \u201cterrible\u201d topography. He added than 120 people, mainly from B\u00e9dar, had been evacuated to a sports centre.<\/p>\n

By Friday morning, 150 firefighters were tackling the blaze and another 150 members of Spain\u2019s Military Emergencies Unit were being deployed to help them.<\/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

Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, the regional president, offered his condolences to all those affected by the fire, saying people were \u201cshattered by grief\u201d.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, urged people to take extra care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re feeling immense sadness and desolation in the face of the terrible consequences of the fire affecting the province of Almer\u00eda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to convey my condolences to the families of those who died in the Los Gallardos forest fire. My wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured and my solidarity with all the affected neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, S\u00e1nchez said Spain would deploy its largest-ever summer wildfire response this year.<\/p>\n

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

More than 3,930 sq km (1,500 sq miles) burned in Spain in 2025, according to the European Forest Fire Information System, making it the country\u2019s worst wildfire year in recent history.<\/p>\n

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 11 people have been killed and 23 are unaccounted for after a fast-moving wildfire broke out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-683934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}