A 93-year-old British woman has died in the devastating wildfires that swept through parts of Spain.
The woman was taken to hospital on Friday after suffering burns to about 20 per cent of her body. Her death was confirmed on Sunday afternoon.
It brings the total number of deaths from the fires to 13 – at least four are thought to be British. Four bodies were also found in a burnt-out car with its steering wheel on the right.
Spain’s forensic services data unit, the CID, said on Sunday night that two more people had been reported missing after it started working with authorities in France, Britain and Belgium to formally register their cases, bringing the total to 10.
The CID said in a statement it was now allowing family members overseas to report their loved ones missing and provide DNA samples in their countries of origin, and it expected to receive more reports in the coming days.
On Sunday in emerged that two British hikers were found alive but badly burned.
The man and woman, who have not been identified, are thought to have suffered 40 per cent burns, according to Spanish national broadcaster, RTVE.
The pair were discovered by a team of Civil Guards, who said they had already checked the area, but had a feeling that they should go back.
Where are the fires in Spain?
In an interview with RTVE, the Civil Guard officers said they found the two British people alive just as night was falling.
Sergeant Pedro Barre told the broadcaster: “That experience we accumulate over the years is what tells you: take another look, give it one last try, check again just in case.”
He said they called out and used whistles, before eventually hearing a sound which they thought at first could have been an echo.
Another of the rescuers, Rafael Zea, said that given the couple’s injuries, it must have taken a “Titanic effort” for them to raise their voices to be heard.
With the help of firefighters and emergency services, they were rescued after more than two hours.
The pair are now said to be in a serious condition in hospital, although their lives are not believed to be in danger.
Spanish authorities believe all the victims were foreign tourists, who are thought to have attempted to escape on foot after apparently abandoning their vehicles and trying to flee through rugged terrain.
Antonio Sanz, head of Andalusia’s emergency services, previously said that authorities had completed post-mortem examinations and DNA samples were collected to identify them.
Meanwhile, the son of a Belgian man who died in the wildfires disputed authorities’ claims that his father and other victims ignored official advice to shelter in place, saying the emergency services gave them no guidance.
Belgian virologist Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt said on Saturday that he spoke to his father, 63-year-old businessman Stanislas Verdonckt, by phone just before 9pm (1900 GMT) on Thursday evening as the fire advanced on the mountain village of Bedar in Spain’s southeastern Almeria province.
Stanislas Verdonckt was among eight victims of the wind-whipped wildfire who were found dead in a valley below the Paraje el Curato area where he lived on the outskirts of Bedar, according to his 33-year-old son. The younger Verdonckt, who lives in Belgium, traveled to Spain after the fire and spoke with surviving neighbours.
No officials told the group that the fire was heading their way or that it would be safer for them to stay at home than flee, Verdonckt said.
“The people who died did not fail to follow any orders because no orders were given. No information was provided,” he said.
“They only started to run when the flames were almost upon them. That was their absolute last resort.”
Andalusia’s regional government has said that no text alert was sent to residents, since the advice differed depending on their location in the mountainous, wooded terrain, and on the latest developments in the fast-moving situation.
Instead, local mayors and police went door-to-door, or called residents, either indicating a safe route along which to evacuate or instructing them to shelter in place.
In a statement on Sunday night, the government contested Verdonckt’s version of events, saying that Bedar’s mayor, Angel Collado, had urged the group including Stanislas Verdonckt to shelter in place.
“We understand the families’ grief and respect the fact that, in times of immense suffering such as these, anger and a sense of helplessness in the face of tragedy can lead to a different perception of what happened,” the statement said.
Verdonckt said a group of neighbours including his father first tried to drive away on Thursday night on a paved road, but were beaten back by flames.
“They couldn’t get through via the main road because they were not warned in advance. Nobody told them that the fire was coming from that direction, and when they tried to get out, it was too late,” he said.
The group then tried to flee by car in the other direction on the neighbours’ dead-end dirt lane, which hugs a mountainside. But they could not make it out, abandoned their cars and sought to escape on foot, he said.
“It was not a choice. They drove to the end of the trail, and when even that was in flames, some people chose to run and try to get into the valley,” he said.
A neighbour who survived in his home told Verdonckt that the flames approached close enough to the house to touch, he said.
Verdonckt said his father, a keen hiker and photographer, had a home in the area for many years, knew the terrain well and spoke Spanish.
During their final phone conversation, Verdonckt said his father debated the options to protect himself.
Stanislas Verdonckt was always calm “even in the most desperate situations” and went over his “plan A, B and C”, Verdonckt said.
“My father is one of the smartest people I know. He's always very analytical and was just checking boxes: ‘Can we do this? Can we do that?’” he said. “At that point, it was just minutes before they were engulfed and they were trapped.”
The Andalusian government said it backed the Bedar mayor’s decision to order citizens to stay in their homes as “the option that offered the greatest guarantees of safety given the conditions of the fire as, unfortunately, the tragic outcome has made clear”.
More than 1,000 residents were given the all clear to return to their homes in the evacuated villages north of Los Gallardos on Sunday afternoon.
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