Emergency services are working to fully stabilise a wildfire which is nearing control in southern Spain where at least 12 people have died and hundreds of residents have been evacuated.
Around 600 of the 1,400 people evacuated from communities in Almería province affected by the fire have been given the all clear to go home, said regional emergency chief Antonio Sanz as firefighters have made “significant” advances in controlling the blaze.
The Andalusian regional government issued a statement in which Sanz said the attack conducted today and the stabilisation of most of the perimeter had allowed such measures to be taken and the gradual return to normality, “always with the greatest of caution”.
Good weather helped retard the spread of the fire. After some days of fighting variable weather, the lighter winds and higher humidity allowed the fire fighters to get in and use direct fire attack tactics.
Emergency crews had taken advantage of the favourable weather to get closer to bringing the wildfire under control, said the justice minister, Félix Bolaños. He also said that the burnt area was still around 6,600ha and there was no major change in the previous day.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is scheduled to fly to the impacted area on Monday to inspect the destruction and speak with the region’s leaders and emergency services.
The wildfire spread across the area at speeds up to 100 m per minute producing extensive devastation. Several roads still have burned-out vehicles strewn across them, as some fled the quickly moving fire.
12 people are dead, though the total number of victims remains to be determined, authorities said. Until forensics can identify recovered bodies and complete autopsies, the number of missing people remains unknown, officials said.
Several of the deceased are suspected to be foreigners, investigators believe. However, the identification has been delayed due to the fact that many family members reside outside of Spain, and therefore it’s more difficult to obtain DNA samples for verification.
Search operations have been ongoing in the fire zone with a more favourable outlook. The Civil Guard officers are in the process of carrying out yet another inspection of the affected communities to make sure no victims remain undiscovered.
Officers have already conducted more than 250 home searches in the area in previous operations, Virginia Barcones, the secretary-general for Civil Protection, said, adding that they will be doing one more sweep.
The Civil Guard has already entered over 250 homes to check they were empty of people and will now “make a complete sweep of the area”, Barcones told Spain’s public broadcaster.
Firefighters are still on alert as they put out any remaining hot spots and authorities are still tracking weather conditions to avoid the fire from starting again. Residents returning home should also be cautious until emergency officials have declared the impacted areas safe, officials said.
