A fast-moving wildfire tore through Almeria in southern Spain on Thursday, killing at least 12 people. Now experts are saying that dangerous mix of heat, dry land and strong winds are the reasons behin the disaster.
What sparked the fire?
Reports suggest the blaze may have been sparked by a fallen power line, according to The Guardian. The fire scorched 3,800 hectares (9,390 acres) in Almeria, with many victims trapped in cars as they tried to escape.
Guillermo Rein, a fire scientist at Imperial College London, explained why the fire spread so fast. “The Los Gallardos wildfire in Almeria appears to have faced the worst possible combination: a point of ignition in a vast landscape of extremely dry vegetation, strong winds, and a nearby community that was unprepared,” he said, as per The Guardian. “These conditions allowed the flames to spread extremely rapidly toward homes, overwhelming the firefighters operating under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Recent heatwaves had already dried out the landscape, turning the vegetation into highly flammable fuel.”
The fires were able to spread quickly because a hot summer turned vegetation into dangerous fuel, after a wet winter and spring had helped plants grow in the first place.
Western Europe is currently suffering through its third heatwave in two months, and this year’s fires are already among the deadliest in Spanish history. They have burned double the usual area for this time of year, data published on Tuesday by the European Forest Fire Information System shows, with triple the number of fires and above-average emissions.
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Why are Spain’s fires getting worse?
Rising temperatures and the decline of rural communities have also made wildfires more dangerous in Spain. As more young people leave farms for cities, vegetation has grown unchecked, creating more fuel for large fires.
Juan Picos, a forest fire scientist at the University of Vigo told Guardian, “The inertia of the two major processes that have brought us to the current situation- land abandonment and climate change is enormous,”
He added, “Even if we begin implementing ambitious measures immediately, conditions are likely to continue worsening for some time before any significant improvement becomes apparent.”
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Details about the Wildfire
The wildfire roared through a remote expat community in southern Spain overnight, killing at least 12 people as they tried to escape the flames in cars and on foot, authorities said Friday, according to AP.
Eight people were injured and 23 were missing, Andalusia’s regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno said.
The blaze is one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires, broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near the Sierra de Los Filabres mountains in Almeria province, as the country has been dealing with soaring temperatures, as per AP.
While 12 deaths have been confirmed in Andalucia, experts say the real death toll from wildfires could be much higher because of the smoke. The Guardian report says thick black wildfire smoke is often more dangerous than the flames. A 2024 study found that pollution from wildfires causes about 1.53 million deaths every year.
