Spanish PM urges better prevention after deadly wildfire

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday urged Spain to strengthen its prevention measures after one of the country's deadliest wildfires in recent history killed 13 people and razed a huge area.

The blaze that broke out on Thursday has transformed picturesque rural settlements into ghost towns and left a trail of destruction in Almeria province, home to many foreign residents near the Mediterranean coast.

Sanchez visited the southern municipality of Turre to meet the emergency services as they work to extinguish the fire, which has scorched about 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest and scrubland.

"We must not only react when these fires happen, we must prevent" as climate change makes civil protection emergencies "increasingly frequent", Sanchez said.

He cited a better protection of municipalities and training courses for young people on how to react.

The leader of Andalusia's regional government, Juanma Moreno, agreed that "we also need the public as a whole to adopt that awareness and self-protection, which is fundamental."

Citizens can respond more quickly to the sighting of smoke, the "suspicious attitudes" of possible arsonists and the warnings of the authorities, Moreno said.

The inferno spread at up to 100 metres (330 feet) per minute at its peak last week, trapping victims in their vehicles or on foot as they tried to flee.

The authorities have spoken of the possibility that some victims did not heed warnings in time.

- 'Climate chaos' -

The authorities have cautioned that the number of missing people remains uncertain until autopsies and the identification of bodies are completed. 

Officials coordinating the identification work said on Sunday that 10 formal reports of people missing had been submitted.

British, Belgian and French authorities were helping to provide genetic profiles from relatives.

Calmer winds and cooler temperatures allowed hundreds of firefighters to tame the blaze over the weekend.

The authorities suspect the wildfire began when a power line broke, setting fire to vegetation that had been parched after hot weather that pushed temperatures above 40C.

Scientists say climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves, which contribute to wildfires, more likely and more intense.

"Here climate change is having a very big impact, and we are in a state of climate chaos with situations that are practically unheard of, exceptional and increasingly explosive," said Moreno.

Sanchez too warned of "a complex, complicated summer that will require us to be vigilant and alert in order to respond as quickly as possible".

Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares of land in Spain last year, the highest figure recorded for the country by the European Forest Fire Information System.

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© Agence France-Presse