Three Belgians identified among victims of deadly Andalusia wildfire

UPDATED 26 AUGUST 2026, 14:00 CEST — Spanish authorities have identified three Belgian nationals among the people killed by the wildfire that began in Los Gallardos, Almería province, on 9 July. The High Court of Justice of Andalusia confirmed the nationalities after forensic teams completed DNA identification of the initial 13 victims, according to El País.

The fire spread rapidly through the eastern Andalusian countryside after starting at about 16:30, El País reported. It burned around 7,000 hectares and forced 1,468 residents to leave their homes or move to safer areas, while about 1,300 others were ordered to remain indoors, according to the Andalusian emergency service. The regional government later reported that 13 people had died and seven had been injured; Europa Press subsequently reported a fourteenth death on 28 July.

Belgian outlet 7sur7 initially reported at least one Belgian death. A relative quoted by the newspaper said the victims received no official warning before the flames reached them. That account has not been independently established as a complete description of the authorities’ contacts with residents. Spanish reporting does confirm that the government did not transmit an ES-Alert mass notification to mobile phones during the emergency, and Andalusian officials face demands to explain why.

The timing is central to the scrutiny. Europa Press reported, citing the Podemos Andalucía party, that the 112 service received its first call at 16:25, the regional emergency phase was declared at 19:37 and the incident was raised to operational level two at 22:37. Those figures are political claims drawn from the emergency record and require confirmation through the official investigation.

Regional emergency chief Antonio Sanz said some victims entered routes that were not designated evacuation roads and became trapped by the fast-moving fire, Cadena SER reported. The Andalusian government has stressed the exceptional speed of the blaze and said changing conditions complicated the response. Opposition parties, victims’ families and affected residents are seeking answers about the missing phone alert, evacuation instructions and firefighting capacity.

For Belgium, the direct impact is the loss of three nationals and the consular support required for their families. The wider issue remains Spanish: whether warning and evacuation systems protected residents in a fire that moved faster than local services could contain it. Judicial and parliamentary inquiries must now establish the cause, reconstruct the warning sequence and determine whether earlier instructions would have changed the outcome.