'Really frightening, unbelievably quick': Witnesses describe fleeing deadly Spain wildfire

Image source, Reuters By Amy Walker  and  Mary Litchfield & James Kelly , Your Voice Published 10 July 2026, 18:46 BST Updated 1 minute ago At least 12 people have died and 23 others are missing in a wildfire in southern Spain that emergency workers were battling to contain on Friday. Officials said it appeared flames spread in the Los Gallardos area of Almería on Thursday afternoon after an electricity pole fell in woodland and sparked a blaze. Speaking to local media, several eyewitnesses described the devastation as "like a bomb has fallen" on the municipality, while others recounted the fire's "unbelievably quick" spread. Lucinda Curtois arrived in Spain with her partner Riyaz Cheytan and their teenage children for a holiday on Thursday. They were in the pool in Bédar, close to where the fire took hold, at about 19:00 local time when neighbours warned them of an evacuation notice. "Within 15 minutes there was a tiny bit of haze, to black smoke, to flames," Curtois told the BBC. "It was really frightening and unbelievably quick." Image source, HANDOUT Image caption, Lucinda Curtois and Riyaz Cheytan arrived in Spain on Thursday for a long weekend The family grabbed a change of clothes, bundled into the car and headed for the main road close to the property. "We turned the corner and all of a sudden the fire was there, there were two coaches of people evacuating too," said Cheytan. They were forced to turn around and find another route, with Curtois saying that as they drove away "it was almost like there was a mushroom cloud of smoke, it was like a bomb had gone off". The family made it to a hotel about half an hour away, along with other evacuees, but said some family friends who had set off walking to evacuate were currently missing. Fellow Brit Peter Chapman was with his wife Shelagh at their holiday home in Mojacar, a short drive from Los Gallardos, on Thursday. When he first noticed the sky darkening, Chapman thought a storm was coming. "Then there was that smell of smoke in the air," he told the BBC. "You could see a glow in the sky in the distance. The only way I can describe it is by thinking of how my mother used to describe the London bombings during the Second World War. It was surreal." The couple stayed at the property but woke on Friday morning to ash and smoke in the air. On a local Facebook forum, Chapman said people were asking others for information on potentially missing people. "It's just terrible," he added. Peter Rowlinson, who lives in Los Gallardos, praised the efforts of authorities in controlling the fire but said the experience had been "very frightening". He is now staying at a relative's house. "We left last night, the smoke was horrendous. We had to get out. The house is still there but there is ash everywhere," he told the BBC. Rowlinson lamented that "hundreds" of people had been displaced, adding that many locals had offered spare rooms, bars and restaurants. "There's a real sense of community in the whole