British survivor recounts harrowing escape from deadly Spanish wildfire that killed his wife

At least 13 people died in the wildfire, including Malcolm Timbrell's wife of 17 years and 12 friends and neighbors; at least four victims were British nationals, with some bodies still unidentified.

In the hillside village of Bédar, in Spain's Almeria province, a wildfire moving faster than human instinct swept away thirteen lives on a July evening, leaving one man to reckon with the unbearable arithmetic of survival. Malcolm Timbrell, 70, turned back for his cats while his wife Annette and twelve friends fled on foot into a firewall advancing at more than 20 kilometres per hour — a decision none of them survived. His account is not merely a story of disaster, but of the small, human choices that separate the living from the dead, and the long silence that follows.

British survivor recounts harrowing escape from deadly Spanish wildfire that killed his wife

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