Hundreds of firefighters backed by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft struggled Saturday to contain one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires that killed a least 12 people.
A combination of light winds and high humidity are helping crews but the sheer size of the fire still poses challenges, Antonio Sanz, head of Andalusia’s emergency services, said. The fire has scorched some 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 in Almeria province, just as Spain was sizzling.
Most of the victims, who are believed to be foreign nationals, died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions, authorities said. Seven people died while on foot after abandoning their cars.
Four of the dead were believed to be British because the steering wheel of their burned-out car was on the right side, as with British vehicles, regional authorities said.
Sanz said Saturday that authorities had completed autopsies and DNA samples were collected to identify them.
Authorities proactively evacuated 1,448 people from some 11 areas.
Fleeing the flames
Jeffrey and Christine Kember were watching a favorite TV show in their Los Pinos farmhouse when the blare of a siren alerted them to the fire.
Jeffrey Kember said at the sight of the advancing flames, both he and his wife jumped into their respective cars while also trying to help a neighbor with two toddlers.
He described how the couple got separated and how he was unable to speak to his wife because she didn’t have a phone on her.
“I’m driving through the flames. It was actually flames. I though, ‘I can’t stop, I just gotta go,” Jeffrey Kember told The Associated Press, with his wife next to him outside an evacuation center.
“It was eerie because all of a sudden I came out of the flames and it was all bright sunshine. It was like surreal. Ridiculous!”
Meanwhile, Spanish authorities arrested two people for ignoring evacuation orders and returning to a high-risk area, according to Spain’s official EFE news agency. Authorities are still combing through the Bédar area in search for any victims.
Europe withers in intense heat
Spain has battled frequent and severe heat waves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Wind, high temperatures and little rainfall help small wildfires grow into unchecked blazes.
Justice Minister Félix Bolaños on Saturday attributed the ferocity of the Almeira wildfire to a “climate emergency.” He said the fire, at its most intense, advanced as fast as 100 meters per minute (328 feet per minute.)
In June, Spain experienced several days of record-setting heat, with over 1,000 excess deaths.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing 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 heat wave in six weeks. Globally, 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, bringing several intense heat waves across Europe.
Wildfires lash France
Several wildfires remained active across France on Saturday as temperatures soared. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that 32 people have been arrested across the country since the beginning of the summer in connection with wildfires.
“Those unacceptable acts, which have disastrous 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 let anything slide.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also weighed in, recalling in a post on X that nine out of 10 wildfires 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 peak of its third heat wave this summer, with temperatures reaching 40 C across western and central areas and around 37 C (98 F) in Paris.
Last month was France’s hottest June on record, with deaths surging by nearly a third during the hottest week.
Spain and Portugal have faced deadly fires before
Spain is no stranger to wildfires, with 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 as large as London. Four people died.
Spain’s deadliest wildfire was in 1979, when 21 people perished in Lloret de Mar, a coastal town about an hour north of Barcelona.
In 2017, a wildfire in neighboring Portugal left 66 people dead in Pedrogao Grande, located 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Lisbon. In that blaze, 47 people died on one road while similarly attempting to flee in their cars.
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Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.
