Spanish PM visits site of deadly wildfire

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (R) shakes hands with emergency services personnel as he arrives in the area of a wildfire that killed at least 13 people, at the command post set in Turre, Almeria Province, on July 13, 2026. The toll from the deadly wildfires in southern Spain rose to 13 on July 12, 2026 after a British woman died of her injuries in hospital, officials in Andalusia region announced. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)
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Updated 13 July 2026
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Spanish PM visits site of deadly wildfire

Turre, Spain: Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday visited the scene of one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires in recent history, which has claimed 13 lives and razed a huge area.
The wildfire 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.
About 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest and scrub land has been scorched.
Sanchez arrived in the southern municipality of Turre to meet the emergency services as they work to extinguish the blaze that continued to burn steep, rugged terrain.
The inferno spread at up to 100 meters (330 feet) per minute at its peak last week, trapping victims in their vehicles or on foot as they tried to flee.
Andalusian regional authorities said on Sunday that a 93-year-old British woman injured in the fire had died in hospital, bringing the death toll to 13.
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 that 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.
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.