Tragedy in Spain: tourists burned in their cars, missing and evacuated in the worst fire in Andalusia

Until this Friday morning (Spanish time), 12 people had burned to death8 are hospitalized with serious burns and a search is underway for 23 missing people. Most of the victims are British and Belgian.

Los Gallardos is located in a mountainous area and has only two departures per route. The town, less than 15 kilometers from beaches like Mojácar and less than an hour from Cabo de Gata, It is usually a refuge for Europeans of the north they seek, especially for the time in which they retire, warmer temperatures and less expensive daily life.

The fire, which would have started due to an electrical fault, spread quickly due to the high temperatures, the movement of the wind and the vegetation of the place, which, dried by the heat, burned in minutes.

Among the people who died trying to escape the flamesfour were found inside a car that, although the tests for his recognition are still continuing, he was identified as British since he had the steering wheel on the right side.

Seven other victims died while They were walking along a boulevardafter having abandoned the car in which they were traveling, trying to avoid the fire.

About 700 residents of neighboring towns were evacuated. They are housed in a sports center and a convent.

The Civil Guard is looking for people who could have getting trapped inside houses and set up a post at the port of La Garrucha to receive complaints and the relatives of the victims who can provide genetic profiles to identify the people who died.

“There are 3,200 hectares burned so far,” said the acting president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, who was scheduled to assume a new mandate this Friday. The Los Gallardos fire changed plans and the regional government suspended all events.

“The evolution of the flames is very fast, it is a very complex, steep area, and scattered houses – said Moreno -. Many live there, they are retired people.”

It’s the fire most tragic in the history of Andalusia.

“This fire started in a ditch, a broken cable between two electricity points“explained the regional president.

“It is an urban fire, of low intensity, but as a result of the wind, with gusts of 50 kilometers per hour, it advanced 15 kilometers in two hours”Moreno Bonilla detailed.

“This is a very complicated fire that has spread like wildfire and given the orography of the terrain, you cannot enter the area, which is terribly steep,” he said.

“The main ally that fire has to spread is the wind. And Almería is one of the areas more windynot only from Andalusia but from all of Spain,” stressed the Andalusian president.

“Pine forests, bushes, scrubland have been burned,” he listed, “a perfect fuel that, with the wind, becomes a time bomb.”

Respecting the people who died, the Andalusian president pointed out that, for the most part, they were “neighbors who unfortunately they didn’t pay attention to the recommendations” and looked for alternative escape routes that did not allow them to escape the flames.

“We are facing a major tragedy – he lamented -. The majority (of the deceased) are from outside Spain: British, Belgians.”

The Los Gallardos fire is on the front page of the British media who usually vacation in Andalusia.

In Almería there live some 17,200 British citizens and others 35 mil They fly to Spain during the summer months.

Moreno Bonilla clarified that an alert message was not sent to the population because there was no single indication.

The population was notified personally from the town hall, explained the regional president, and, depending on where the neighbors were, some had to take shelter inside their homes while others had to leave them.

“That (the cell phone alert) was going to cause confusion,” he said.

“There are areas that they do not have coverage“added Moreno Bonilla.