Twelve of the 13 people killed in a devastating wildfire in the Andalusia region of southern Spain were foreign nationals, it has been learned. The country’s authorities confirmed the information on Tuesday after autopsies.
In a statement, the authorities said seven of the dead were British nationals, three Belgian, one French and one American, while the remaining one was a Spanish national, news agency AFP reported.
Of the 13 dead, eight were women and five men, and all were adults, said the government agency responsible for identifying the victims.
The fire broke out last Thursday in the south-eastern province of Almeria, near the Mediterranean coast — a scenic area where many foreign nationals live.
Strong winds spread the fire rapidly through forest and through scrub dried out by an intense heatwave, turning once-picturesque rural settlements into deserted areas.
Rescuers initially recovered 12 bodies, so badly burned that DNA testing was needed to identify them.
Regarded as one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires in recent years, the blaze burned about 7,000 hectares (more than 17,000 acres). Authorities said it had started when an electrical wire snapped and fell onto a road.
The fire is now under control, and residents began returning to their homes on Sunday. In recent years the intensity and duration of heatwaves in Spain have increased, with temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, creating conditions favourable for wildfires to spread. According to the European Forest Fire Information System, more than 3,93,000 hectares were destroyed by wildfires in Spain in 2025, the highest in the country’s recent history.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report