LOS GALLARDOS, Spain, (Reuters): As flames approached their homes and the smoke-filled air became choking, panicked residents in rural Andalusian villages around Los Gallardos in southern Spain chose to flee — a decision some paid for with their lives.
With the wildfire racing up the bone-dry mountainsides, residents faced a choice of taking their chance and leaving, or sheltering in place.
Authorities recommended some residents above Los Gallardos evacuate and signalled a safe route, while later it was considered safer for those in the forested hamlet of Bedar to stay where they were given the fire was so close.
“In situations like this, it is essential that we all follow the routes indicated,” Antonio Sanz, head of emergencies in the Andalusia region, said. “Unfortunately in this instance a decision was taken to use another route that wasn’t the one recommended for evacuation. Looking for another way out via a dry riverbed turned out to be a trap.”
As the flames approached, Antonio Rubio, a handyman living in Bedar, said the smoke had made it impossible to shelter in place.
“We left the house yesterday (Thursday) afternoon at 5 o’clock. The fire didn’t reach my house – it stopped just short of it – but we could already see so much smoke, even though the fire was some distance away, so we had to leave,” he said. “We did so of our own accord.”
Twelve people have been confirmed dead in one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires, with 23 still missing.
Sanz said four people, whom he said appeared to be British as the steering wheel of their car was on the right-hand side, died in one vehicle. Seven others were found dead after apparently abandoning their cars to try to escape on foot.
“The village of Bedar in the end wasn’t affected by the flames in most cases so that order to shelter in place avoided a more serious situation,” he added.
ROADS BLOCKED BY FIRE
Sonia, a Spanish woman living in Los Gallardos who declined to give her last name, said that she had taken in relatives as the authorities had told them to evacuate at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT).
She said that they had been told to avoid the main route out of Bedar, driving out on a back route further up into the mountains instead before doubling back towards the coast.
“There are many houses in the middle of the countryside in the mountains, so people would take whichever roads they could,” she said.
“The road from Bédar to Los Gallardos was blocked, since the fire had crossed the road and it was impassable.”
As authorities searched for the missing, anxious relatives from around the world posted messages on social media and local forums.
One woman in the United States posted a message to the local emergency services saying her brother had been among a group of 10 people who tried to escape through a valley next to a stream, sharing the coordinates and asking emergency services to check for him.
The regional President Juanma Moreno said the instinct to flee was understandable. “When many people see a fire, the first thing they do is run away, don’t they? And of course, they think they know the routes but if they don’t have the right information, those routes can of course turn into a death trap.”
Bedar Mayor Ángel Collado said many of those affected were foreign residents.
“They are British, Belgian residents. I have even officiated some of their weddings. I feel sadness and profound pain,” he said in an emotional account to reporters at the emergency site.
