BEJAR, SPAIN (AP) – Hundreds of firefighters supported by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft scrambled Saturday to control one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires that killed at least 12 people.
A combination of light winds and high humidity are helping crews, but the sheer size of the fire still poses challenges, said Antonio Sanz, head of emergency services in Andalusia. The fire has burned about 66 square kilometers (25 square miles) of forest and farmland, about the size of Manhattan.
Sanz said fire crews carried out controlled burns overnight around the perimeter of the fire, which broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near the Sierre de Los Filabres mountains in Almeria province, just as Spain was boiling over.
Most of the victims, believed to be foreign nationals, died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions, authorities said. Seven people died on foot after abandoning their cars.
Four of the dead are believed to be British because the steering wheel of their burning car was on the right-hand side, as with British vehicles, regional authorities said.
Sanz said Saturday that authorities had completed autopsies and DNA samples had been collected to identify them.
Authorities proactively evacuated 1,448 people from about 11 areas.
Running away from the flames
Jeffrey and Christine Kember were watching a favorite TV show in their Los Pinos ranch home when the sound of a siren alerted them to the fire.
Jeffrey Kember said that at the sight of the advancing flames, he and his wife jumped into their respective cars while also trying to help a neighbor with two children.
He described how the couple split up and how he was unable to speak to his wife because she did not have a phone with him.
“I’m walking through flames. It was actually flames. Still, ‘I can’t stop, I just have to go,'” Jeffrey Kember told The Associated Press, with his wife by his side outside an evacuation center.
“It was scary because all of a sudden I came out of the flames and it was all sunny. It was like surreal. Funny!”
Meanwhile, Spanish authorities arrested two people for ignoring evacuation orders and returning to a high-risk area, according to Spain’s official news agency EFE. Authorities are still searching the Bédar area for any victims.
Europe dries up from intense heat
Spain has faced frequent and severe heat waves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Wind, high temperatures and low rainfall help small fires turn into uncontrolled flames.
Justice Minister Félix Bolaños on Saturday attributed the ferocity of the Almeira fire to a “climate emergency”. He said the fire, at its most intense, advanced at speeds of up to 100 meters per minute (328 feet per minute).
In June, Spain experienced several days of record heatwith over 1,000 excess deaths.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Parts of Western Europe are facing their third heatwave in six weeks. Globally, 2025 was the third hottest year on record, bringing some intense heat waves across Europe.
Fires hit France
Several fires remained active across France on Saturday as temperatures rose. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 32 people have been arrested across the country since the start of the summer in connection with the fires.
“Those unacceptable acts, which have catastrophic consequences and mobilize our firefighters at the risk of their lives, now fall into the hands of the justice system,” he said. “We will continue our determined action and will not allow anything to slip.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also weighed in, recalling in a post on X that nine out of 10 fires start because of human activity. More than 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of land have burned in France since the start of 2026, roughly double the area compared to the same period last year.
France is experiencing the height of its third heatwave this summer, with temperatures reaching 40C in western and central areas and around 37C (98F) in Paris. In the French capital, the Eiffel Tower will close in the afternoon over the weekend instead of late at night, as it usually does. The Louvre and Orsay museums have also announced reduced opening hours due to the heat wave.
Last month was France’s hottest June on record, by deaths increasing by almost a third long the hottest week.
Spain and Portugal have previously faced deadly fires
Spain is is no stranger to fireswith last year’s fire season burning more than 393,000 hectares (971,000 acres). according to the European Forest Fire Information System, an area twice the size of London. Four people died.
Spain’s deadliest fire was in 1979, when 21 people lost their lives in Lloret de Mar, a coastal town about an hour north of Barcelona.
In 2017, a fire in neighboring Portugal left 66 dead in Pedrogao Grande, located 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Lisbon. In that flame, 47 people lost their lives on a road while similarly trying to flee in their cars.
———
By SERGIO RODRIGO and SERGE CARTWRIGHT Associated Press
Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.
Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing arguments provides the latest on ongoing trials, major litigation and decisions in courts around the US and the world, while monthly Under the lights feeds legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
