A British couple have been confirmed dead among the 13 victims of a devastating wildfire that swept through the village of Bédar, in Spain's southeastern Almería province, last Thursday evening. Pete and Fran Gillam, who had made their home in the small rural village, were identified by their family after days of desperate searching. Their daughter, Danielle Gillam-Kirton, wrote on Facebook: "We are heartbroken to share that we have received confirmation from the police that Mum and Dad did not survive the fire." Her mother had last made contact at around 7pm on Thursday, texting to say they were evacuating — after that, all calls and messages went unanswered.

Spanish authorities confirmed on Monday that five British nationals were among the 13 dead, alongside three Belgians, one French woman and a Spanish man. Many of the bodies were so severely burned by the blaze that DNA samples from relatives are required for formal identification, and three victims remain unidentified. A 93-year-old British woman who was injured in the fire died in hospital on Sunday, bringing the confirmed British death toll to five. British, Belgian and French consular staff have been assisting with the identification process.

The human cost of the disaster was brought into sharp relief by the account of Malcolm Timbrell, 70, a British survivor who spoke outside his destroyed home in Bédar. He and his wife Annette Kilgore, 69 — who had found the property through the Channel 4 programme A Place in the Sun — were attempting to flee with a group of neighbours when Malcolm turned back to rescue their two cats. By the time he tried to rejoin the group, the others had abandoned their vehicles and were attempting to outrun the firewall on foot. "That fire wall was moving at 20 kilometres per hour, plus. They had no chance," he said. Malcolm took refuge in the last of six cars, four of which caught fire around him, and was eventually rescued by emergency services. Eight bodies were later found on a path leading down from the hillside.

The fire, which authorities suspect was ignited when a power line broke and set alight parched vegetation, spread at up to 100 metres per minute at its peak, fanned by strong winds and temperatures exceeding 40°C. It has scorched around 7,000 hectares of forest and scrubland across the area. Calmer winds over the weekend allowed firefighters to bring the blaze under control, and some 1,500 evacuated residents were permitted to return home. Bédar, a picturesque hillside village popular with British and other European expatriates, bore the brunt of the disaster.

The fire has renewed urgent debate about Spain's preparedness for increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the disaster zone on Monday, calling for stronger prevention measures and warning that climate change is making such emergencies "increasingly frequent." Juanma Moreno, the leader of Andalucía's regional government — Almería is one of the eight provinces that make up the region — described the situation as "climate chaos with situations that are practically unheard of, exceptional and increasingly explosive." Scientists note that human-caused climate change is intensifying heatwaves and the wildfire conditions that follow them. The British Foreign Office said it was supporting affected nationals and their families and remained in close contact with Spanish authorities.