Deadly Spain wildfire kills 12, residents report chaotic warnings

A wildfire in the Los Gallardos area of Almería province had killed at least 12 people and left 23 missing by Sunday, after residents said warnings were chaotic or never reached them as flames raced through southern Spain.

The fire erupted in Andalusia on Thursday, July 9, 2026, and quickly turned deadly as people tried to flee by car and on foot. Spanish officials said some victims drove into a dry river bed that became a trap, while other accounts described burned vehicles and bodies found along escape routes. Officials said the dead appeared to be mostly foreign nationals living in or visiting the area, and RTÉ reported that one Spaniard was among the victims.

The human toll exposed a widening dispute over what people were told to do as the fire spread. The son of one Belgian man who died rejected the authorities’ account that residents had been warned to shelter in place, and residents in the area said communication was chaotic or even nonexistent. Juanma Moreno, Andalusia’s regional leader, said some of the dead may have been British. The area is a popular holiday destination with a large community of European expats, a detail that widened concern over how alerts were delivered to visitors as well as locals.

By Sunday, the blaze had stabilized, but firefighting resources were still heavy. Around 500 firefighters and more than 20 water-dropping aircraft had been deployed, and Spain’s military emergency unit was expected to join the effort. Spanish regional authorities described the fire as the most devastating in the region to date, while national and international officials called it one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires on record and the country’s deadliest blaze of 2026.

The fire’s speed and the confusion around warnings raised hard questions about evacuation planning in a region already under pressure from intense heat and dangerous weather. In a district where roads, ravines and holiday homes sit close together, the gap between official claims of preparedness and the stories told by residents and survivors has become part of the disaster itself.