Authorities in Almería launched a large-scale search operation on Sunday across the scorched field of Los Gallardos after the wildfire, which began on 9 July and spread toward Bédar. With the fire stabilized, ten mixed teams from Protección Civil and the Guardia Civil worked alongside the Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME), covering 217 hectares and prioritizing areas where the most victims had been found. The blaze ultimately affected about 7,000 hectares; regional reports described it advancing at up to 100 metres per minute amid high temperatures and dry vegetation, with strong winds.
At the time of the search, the official toll stood at 12 dead and eight injured, four of them in critical condition. Authorities had eight formal missing-person reports and a separate list of 23 people still unaccounted for. More than 100 personnel inspected 250 homes with support from drones and a helicopter, negotiating difficult terrain and lingering hot spots. The sweep found no additional victims. Later regional reporting put the final death toll at 15, making the fire the deadliest recorded in Andalusia.
Most of the inspected homes remained intact, although some had been threatened by the flames. A collapsed garage raised concern in one case, but its owner was found alive. The search was complicated by scattered rural properties and the number of foreign residents in the area, including British and Belgian nationals. At least one relative of a foreign victim provided DNA samples to help identify the deceased.
As aerial units continued cooling the area to prevent flare-ups, more than 1,600 evacuees began returning in phases over the weekend. Residents of Las Pastoras were among the first to go back after two days in temporary accommodation. Search teams kept checking properties and looking for missing people as the immediate danger receded. Subsequent sweeps of the burned areas found no further victims at that stage.
Investigators from Seprona, the Guardia Civil’s environmental division, were examining the suspected fall of an old power pole in the Almocáizar area near the A-7. Endesa said the line was not live, while eyewitnesses reported seeing sparks from the cable before the fire started. Investigators removed part of the cable for analysis; the fire’s origin remained under investigation.
Authorities also worked to consolidate control along the fire’s 40-kilometre perimeter and assess the damage. After the blaze was stabilized, authorities oversaw the evacuation and phased return while search operations continued. Identification of the deceased and treatment of injured people also continued. The fire destroyed pasture and rural land, causing impressive losses for livestock owners.
The disaster formed part of an exceptionally severe wildfire season in Spain. EFEverde reported that nearly 280,000 hectares of forest had burned nationally in 2026, about 2.5 times the average for the previous decade. Information from Copernicus data, Spain accounted for roughly 43% of the area burned in the European Union. The Los Gallardos fire accounted for 15 of Spain’s 21 wildfire deaths reported in that assessment.
