Evacuees allowed to return home after deadly wildfire in Spain stabilises

A wildfire that killed at least 12 people in southern Spain has been stabilised, allowing around 1,500 evacuees to return home, officials said Sunday.

"The fire has been contained within its perimeter and brought under control, with no danger of flames spreading." the head of the regional government of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno, told reporters

"This is, so to speak, the beginning of the end of a terrifying wildfire that has set records for how quickly it spread," he added.

Some 600 people evacuated from the fire zone in Spain's Almeria province had been allowed to return home late on Saturday, while the remaining 1,000 evacuees will now be able to do the same in stages, Moreno said.

Burned-out vehicles still line some roads where people were trapped as the fast-moving fire swept through the area at speeds of up to 100 metres (330 feet) per minute.

"It’s just devastation, totally devastated." James Shellingford, a 60-year-old Briton who lives in the small whitewashed village of Bedar where the victims were found, told AFP.

"We feel very sad for the people who have lost their homes and the people and the families who have lost their lives."

Lore Van Moll, 33, a Belgian woman visiting her parents in nearby Alfaix, said she felt fortunate that she was unharmed and that her family’s home had been spared.

"It’s a really big relief," she told AFP.

- 'Ball of fire' -

Officials said the 12 people who died in the fast-moving fire had been trapped in vehicles or tried to flee on foot. 

"I said to my wife 'Get out quick, leave everything. Get out.' And the time it took to say that I was engulfed in a ball of fire," a tearful Jerome Navarro told French television on Saturday.

He and his French wife had just arrived at their holiday home when the flames closed in.

Navarro escaped by throwing himself into a ditch and crawling away, but hasn't seen his wife, who remains missing.

Authorities have kept the death toll at 12 and cautioned that the number of missing people remains uncertain until autopsies and the identification of recovered bodies are completed. 

Officials have said many of the victims could be foreign nationals.

The Civil Guard police planned another search of the affected area Sunday to ensure no victims remain unaccounted for.

"I sincerely hope they don't find anyone else, but we need to carry out one final thorough search to make sure that's the case," Virginia Barcones, Spain’s top emergency management official, told public broadcaster TVE.

Calmer winds and higher air humidity levels allowed firefighters on Saturday to directly attack the flames for the first time, officials said.

- DNA testing -

The authorities suspect the wildfire -- one of the deadliest in Spain's recent history -- began on Thursday when a power line broke during an extreme heatwave that has pushed temperatures above 40C in recent weeks.

Winter and spring rains spurred abundant vegetation that later dried out in successive heat waves, leaving ample fuel for wildfires, officials said.

The fire has so far ravaged around 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of land, Moreno said.

Around 500 firefighters backed by water-dropping aircraft were battling the blaze which erupted Thursday in the Gallardos area, home to many foreign residents.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is scheduled to visit the devastated area on Monday. 

The identification of the victims has been delayed by difficulties collecting DNA samples from relatives, some of whom are travelling from abroad.

Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves more likely and more intense.

Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares (one million acres) 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