Spain Wildfire Death Toll Confirmed at 13: All But One Victim Were Foreign Nationals

Since the wildfire tore through Spain's Almería province on July 9, authorities have completed post-mortem examinations and formally confirmed the identities of all 13 people killed, according to Spanish officials cited by Agence France-Presse and local media.

Twelve of the 13 victims were foreign nationals. Seven were British, three were Belgian, one was French and one was American. The final victim was a Spanish citizen. The public body responsible for identification said the dead were eight women and five men, all adults.

The fire, sparked by an electrical cable falling onto a road, burned through roughly 7,000 hectares, more than 17,000 acres, according to The Guardian. That makes it one of Spain's deadliest wildfires in recent history. Flames have since been contained and residents were allowed back into evacuated areas of Bédar starting Sunday.

Who died

Among the confirmed British dead are Pete and Fran Gillam, a couple who lived in Bédar, the village hit hardest by the blaze. Their daughter, Danielle Gillam-Kirton, confirmed the deaths on Facebook, writing that the family was "heartbroken" and thanking supporters for their "love, support and prayers."

The identification process required DNA sampling in many cases because bodies were too badly burned for visual identification, according to The Guardian. Spanish authorities initially said Sunday that only five British nationals had been confirmed dead, then revised that number upward to seven once autopsies were completed Tuesday.

One man's survival

Malcolm Timbrell, 70, lived in Bédar with his partner of 17 years, Annette Kilgore, 69. He described the ordeal to BBC News, in an interview also carried by CBS News, standing outside the burned shell of his hillside home.

Timbrell said the group, including Kilgore and several neighbors, initially planned to flee by car. He went back inside to retrieve the couple's two cats, Charlie and Lilly, and when he returned to the vehicles, found the group had gotten out and decided to flee on foot instead.

"My wife and our other seven friends and neighbors, against me screaming at them not to, decided the only safe way was to walk out in front of the firewall," Timbrell told the BBC. He said he later learned the fire wall was moving at more than 20 kilometers per hour, about 12 miles per hour. "They had no chance," he said.

Timbrell tried to shelter in one of six abandoned cars along the road. "Of the six cars, four of them instantly combusted and as each one started to go, I moved back one car," he said. "For some reason of fate, the last two cars, although very, very badly singed and paint bubbled and burnt, survived. And I survived inside the last one with a cat."

He was later rescued by local authorities. Eight bodies were found down the road from his home, according to CBS News. Kilgore was among those formally identified by Tuesday, per CBS News' reporting, after DNA testing confirmed her death.

A second account, same road

A separate British victim died in his car while trying to save his pets, according to Penelope Howe, 54, a friend of the man's wife, who spoke to The Guardian. Howe said the man was trapped in his vehicle during the evacuation of Los Gallardos, a nearby area in Almería province, and spoke to his wife by phone in his final minutes. "That was how it ended," Howe said.

Scale and context

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it is "supporting British nationals affected and their families" and remains in contact with Spanish authorities, per the BBC. Nearly 1,500 people were evacuated from Almería province while firefighters battled the flames.

Andalucía's regional president, Juanma Moreno, tied the disaster to broader climate trends, telling reporters, "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