A wildfire in southern Spain has killed at least 12 people, making it one of the country’s deadliest on record, as soaring temperatures grip much of the country, authorities said Friday.
Several victims of the fire in the southern province of Almeria, a popular holiday destination, were found inside burnt-out vehicles and were thought to have died while trying to flee the flames.
Eight people have been injured and a further 23 are unaccounted for, Andalusia’s regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno said. Some 150 firefighters and 220 soldiers from Spain’s military emergency unit were battling the blaze, which has consumed more than 3,200 hectares of forest and farmland.
Regional emergency authorities said four British nationals and other unspecified foreign nationals appeared to be among the dead.
The fire broke out in a hamlet in a semiarid area near the Sierra de Los Filabres mountains. Authorities have not confirmed the cause, but said people who called to report the fire said that a fallen power line had sparked a blaze that spread rapidly into a nearby forest.
Most of the victims died while attempting to flee and ignored shelter-in-place instructions, said Antonio Sanz, president of Andalusia’s emergency services. One group did so via a dry riverbed, which “turned into a death trap,” he said.
Seven people died while on foot after abandoning their cars, Sanz said, likely looking for a way out.
“The consequences have been terrible. Everything seems to indicate that, in the case of the deceased ... we are dealing for the most part, if not entirely, with foreign nationals,” Sanz said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences. “Immense sadness and desolation in the face of the terrible consequences of the fire affecting the province of Almeria,” he wrote on X.
Spain has battled frequent and severe heat waves in recent years, with temperatures often exceeding 40 C (104 F). Wind, high temperatures and little rainfall help small wildfires grow into unchecked blazes.
In June, Spain experienced several days of record-setting heat, with over 1,000 excess deaths attributed to heat.
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.
Scientists warn that climate change caused in part by the burning of fuels like gasoline, oil and coal is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making certain regions more vulnerable to wildfires.
Spain is no stranger to wildfires, with last year’s fire season burning more than 393,000 hectares (almost 1,520 square miles), according to the European Forest Fire Information System, an area twice as large as London. Four people died.
In 2017, a wildfire in neighboring Portugal left 66 people dead in Pedrogao Grande, located 120 miles northeast of Lisbon.
In that blaze, 47 people died on one road while similarly attempting to flee in their cars.
