Key facts
- Nine British nationals were among the 15 people killed in the Bédar fire on July 9.
- The PP and Vox said an ongoing criminal investigation would provide the necessary answers.
- Andalusia's emergencies chief Antonio Sanz said the region decided against mobile alerts because they could not be tailored to specific communities.
- Officials said an alert could have caused panic and traffic jams; families reject that argument.
- Bédar's emergency plan was last approved in 2019 and regional officials say it was being updated.
- The BBC reported seeing a letter in which the Andalusian government refused Socialist MPs' request for its official reports on the fire.
Relatives of Britons killed in the July 9 wildfire at Bédar, in Spain's Almería province, told the BBC they were disgusted after the People's Party and the far-right Vox in the Andalusian parliament rejected an opposition Socialist request for a commission of inquiry, the BBC reported on November 6, 2026. The two parties argued that an ongoing criminal investigation would provide the necessary answers. The Andalusian government, the PP and Vox were approached for comment.
Nine British nationals were among the 15 people who died when fire moved through the hillside village. Fourteen of the dead were foreign nationals: nine British, three Belgian, one French and one American. The other victim was Spanish. The death toll was the highest from any single fire in Spain during the summer of 2026, the BBC reported.
Families criticized the decision not to send an emergency alert to mobile phones as the flames closed in. Duncan Chard, whose father Michael and Michael's partner Christine died, said: "If that evacuation warning had come through in time, my father would still be alive." Andalusia's emergencies chief, Antonio Sanz, said the region decided not to use the alert system because it could not be tailored to specific communities. Officials said some residents needed to evacuate while others were safer at home, and that an alert could have caused panic and traffic jams.
Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt, a Belgian virologist whose father Stanislas, 63, died, said the victims "never received advice on what they should do, and certainly not warnings that they were in danger". He said the only contact from authorities came a couple of minutes before the flames reached them, when a police car drove past with sirens on.
Bédar's emergency plan was last approved in 2019, and regional officials say it was being updated. The municipality is classified by the Andalusian government as at risk from wildfires. In the days after the fire, Sanz drew criticism for appearing to blame victims who left "at the last minute" and "took the wrong path".
Danni Gillam-Kirton, an assistant headteacher from Nottinghamshire, lost her parents Pete and Fran, who had lived in Bédar since 2018. She said her mother texted her at about 19:00 to say they had packed in case they had to leave. In August, she and her husband found what appeared to be human bones, along with her parents' mobile phones, jewellery, house keys and money, in the burnt-out car in which her father died, after police had told the family the car had been meticulously searched and no belongings survived. The family says police later told them no DNA was recovered and the bones were those of an animal; Gillam-Kirton says experts, including a forensic anthropologist who worked on the Grenfell Tower fire investigation, believe the fragments were human. The Guardia Civil was approached for comment.
The cause of the fire, also known as the Los Gallardos fire after the neighboring town where it started, is the subject of a criminal investigation. In July, the Guardia Civil said it believed a fallen power line started it, but that explanation has been called into question. The BBC said it had seen a letter in which the Andalusian government refused a request from Socialist MPs for its official reports on the fire, including documents explaining why no mobile alert was sent.