article_detail

Most of the victims of the wildfire that tore through Los Gallardos in Almería yesterday are believed to be British or Belgian, according to Andalusian regional government officials.

 

The fire, which broke out on Thursday July 9 and is thought to have started after a power line came down, has burned around 3,150 hectares and left a trail of destruction officials are calling unprecedented for Spain.

 

The provisional death toll stands at 11, with eight people injured and 19 still missing. President of the Regional Government Juanma Moreno has warned that the number of victims could still rise.

 

The scale of the tragedy is unimaginable. Four victims, likely British, died inside a right-hand drive vehicle that failed to follow evacuation instructions and ended up in what Minister for Emergencies Antonio Sanz described as a "dead-end trap."

 

The remaining seven appear to have died on foot while looking for an exit, one that, in Mr Sanz's words, "was not the designated one." Of those seven, the minister indicated one was Spanish, while the rest may have been Belgian or British, although this hasn't yet been officially confirmed.

 

For many families, the wait for news has been agonising. British woman Patricia McGough took to social media on Friday morning searching for her missing daughter.

 

"My daughter is missing. She was driving a red Ford Fiesta with her dog. Has anyone seen her?" she wrote, explaining that her daughter had left the house at 6.30am with her dog and never returned.

 

The strength of the British community in the area goes some way to explaining why so many of the victims are believed to be UK nationals. The area has long drawn British residents thanks to the sunshine, lower cost of living and what many describe as a lively expat atmosphere, and the most recent census shows British citizens make up 1,024 of the area's 2,841 registered residents.

 

Regional government sources have confirmed that the majority of those killed or still missing are believed to be foreign nationals, with early indications pointing mainly to British residents who either died or disappeared while trying to escape the flames on foot or by car, some along paths and ravines that turned out to be, in the words of officials, "death traps."

 

The Guardia Civil has now opened a complaints office for relatives of missing persons at the Garrucha station in Almería. According to police sources, the office's main task is locating missing people and collecting DNA samples from relatives, with the aim of formally identifying the deceased as quickly as possible.