Wildfire in southern Spain kills 12, forces 1,000 to evacuate

The death toll from the wildfire in Los Gallardos rose to 12 overnight after rescuers found six more victims, making it one of Spain’s deadliest fires this year. About 1,000 people were evacuated as flames advanced through the Almería municipality and toward nearby hamlets.

The fire broke out on Thursday, July 9, in Los Gallardos, a town of about 3,110 residents. Some of the victims were found inside burned-out vehicles in a nearby hamlet in the municipality of Bédar after trying to escape the flames. A cable fell near the N-340 road, and the fire spread rapidly through dry forested terrain.

Emergency services sent roughly 150 firefighters to the scene, backed by four fire engines, a wildfire medical unit, a command unit and a regional emergency unit. Spain’s Unidad Militar de Emergencias, the military emergency force known as the UME, was activated and deployed 150 personnel as authorities ordered preventive evacuations in nearby areas.

Juan Manuel Moreno, the president of Andalusia, expressed shock and condolences on social media as crews worked through the night around Los Gallardos and Bédar, where the fire had already left blackened vehicles and scorched hillsides behind.

The fire came during a severe early-summer heatwave. Spain’s first official heatwave of 2026 began on June 21, with temperatures reaching around 40C in Madrid, and the Carlos III Health Institute’s MoMo monitoring system estimated 1,028 heat-related deaths in June alone. Spain’s Agencia Estatal de Meteorología warned of wildfire risk as the heat spread across southern Europe.