Patchy warnings, outdated plans left victims of Spanish wildfire to fend for themselves

BEDAR, Spain July 22 - When 12 people died trying to escape a wildfire around the mountain village of Bedar and a nearby hamlet in southern Spain on July 9, regional officials said some of them had ignored advice to remain at their homes.

But five residents and survivors who spoke to Reuters said no advice of any kind ever reached them, while two others who did receive warnings as the fire — one of Spain's deadliest — approached, said these came via church bells, WhatsApp Groups and house visits by local officials, in a piecemeal operation.

Bob Layton, a retired technical manager from Britain, said he received no warning about the fire or advice on what to do. He decided himself to flee, driving away just a minute before the wildfire engulfed his home in Paraje el Curato, a hamlet about 2.5 km (1.55 miles) from Bedar and where most of the victims lived who died trying to escape.

A 13th person, a 93-year-old British woman, died in hospital of burns.

"If I had received any advice to stay in my home we would have been dead - it was burned to the ground," Layton said.

"I knew the track to get out on, others attempted to take the same track, a slightly different route and didn't survive. The fire became an inferno."

The main village of Bedar was left unscathed while in Paraje el Curato some homes were burned and others survived.

Eight people, neighbours of Layton, died trying to leave Paraje el Curato down the same track after the main road was cut off. Four others died in a separate convoy of cars.

The fire didn't reach the hamlet until about 8 p.m., 3.5 hours after it was first reported, and by which time the main road out was blocked.

Antonio Sanz, head of emergencies for Andalusia, said the region had decided not to use an emergency warning system that sends alerts to mobile phones for the fire because it couldn't be tailored to specific communities, where some needed to evacuate and others stay at home.

Other regions such as Madrid, Aragon and Castile La Mancha last week used the system for wildfires.

The Andalusia government said in a statement on July 11 that Bedar's mayor and other officials had gone door to door in the area to issue advice, and had also told victims from Paraje el Curato to shelter in place.

However, Sophie Vandebroek, whose brother Stanislas Verdonckt was among those who died, said he didn't receive a warning, which would have given them time to evacuate safely.

"If only there had been communication through the emergency alert system when the fire broke out, hours before my brother saw the fire, then Stanislas and his seven neighbors would still be alive today," she said.

She and her family had spoken with the mayor and victims' families she said. Some relatives had discussed with their loved ones whether they should flee or not.

"It appears that none of the people who died received any official communication before it was too late," she added.

The mayor, Angel Collado, declined a request for an interview and Bedar town hall didn't respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

A spokesperson for the local military police said all of the relevant facts about the fire were being investigated but made no further comments as the case is sealed. A spokesperson for Andalusia's Supreme Court said the judge was basing the investigation on the cause of the fire.

FIRES SPREADING FASTER

As wildfires in Europe occur more frequently and spread with greater speed, experts say communicating clear evacuation plans and details of how to stay safe must happen long before a fire breaks out.

"The public must be aware in advance of the risks in the area, evacuation routes, and basic self-protection measures. This means mapping out scattered dwellings, planning evacuations and carrying out drills," said Fernando Medina, a professor of geography at the University of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria.

Only 42 out of 103 municipalities in Almeria, the Andalusian province which includes Bedar, had plans in place for emergencies, including wildfires. Just nine of those had met the requirement for an updated fire plan every four years if in an area of risk, according to data from the Andalusia government.

Bedar's emergency plan was last approved in 2019 and was in the process of being updated, a spokesperson for the Andalusian government said. The municipality is classified as at risk from wildfires.

Asked about the lack of plans, the spokesperson said the Andalusian government provides advice and help but it's the responsibility of municipalities to update their emergency plans.

Bedar's town hall did not respond to several requests for comment on its evacuation plans and whether it had carried out drills for wildfires.

Almeria province's government held a meeting in February in Los Gallardos, next to Bedar, with 49 municipalities about how to streamline the process of updating their emergency plans, according to an online statement. Bedar town hall didn't respond to an email asking whether it had participated in the meeting.

Some of those who lived closer to Bedar than the hamlet did receive warnings. Waheed Mumtaz, a goatherd, said police visited him at 10:30 p.m. to tell him to evacuate.

Juan Pedro, a waiter at Bedar's Miramar restaurant, said the church bells began ringing soon after the fire broke out. A message through a WhatsApp group from the town hall told him he should evacuate, he said.

"Here in the village, as soon as we saw the smoke, heard the bells and word got round, everyone knew they had to get out," he said.

But not everyone was in that WhatsApp group. Pedro Tierney, 31, saw the fire from afar and hurried home in time to escape with his grandmother and aunt by car.

It was "my gut feeling that we had to leave the village – and that's what saved our lives," he said, adding he received no alert to evacuate.

Wildfires can change direction suddenly with the wind, making authorities' task of communicating instructions challenging, said David Alexander, emeritus professor of emergency planning and management at University College London.

But haphazard messaging during this fire suggests poor planning, he said. They should have at least used an alert to warn of a fire, even if they could not send targeted instructions, he said.

Layton urged authorities to plan with residents how to warn of imminent danger in future.

"I don't blame anybody - it all happened so quickly - but I found it despicable that they should try to assign blame," he said. REUTERS