Nearly every victim of the devastating wildfire that tore through Andalusia in southern Spain was a foreign national, authorities confirmed after completing post-mortem examinations on all 13 people killed.
Officials said the dead included seven UK citizens, three Belgians, one French national and one American. The remaining victim was Spanish.
“The 13 people who died were eight women and five men, all of them adults,” the public body tasked with identifying the victims said.
The blaze erupted last Thursday in the scenic southeastern province of Almeria, a Mediterranean coastal area that is home to a large community of foreign residents.
Workers survey the scorched landscape left by the deadly Los Gallardos wildfire
One of Spain’s deadliest wildfires in recent years, the blaze was sparked when an electrical cable fell onto a road. It burned through roughly 7,000 hectares of land.
Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control, allowing displaced residents to begin returning to their homes on Sunday.
Spain has endured longer and more frequent heatwaves in recent years, with temperatures climbing above 40C and leaving landscapes dangerously vulnerable to wildfire.
More than 393,000 hectares burned across the country in 2025, according to the European Forest Fire Information System — the highest total in Spain’s recent history.
