LOS GALLARDOS, Spain, July 11 — As a wildfire tore across the mountains towards them, panicked residents in rural Andalusian villages around Los Gallardos in southern Spain faced an impossible choice: shelter in place and endure the choking smoke, or take their chances and flee.
At least 12 went against the advice of local mayors and police who went door-to-door asking them to stay put, opting to flee by car from Bedar, a village that mostly escaped the flames, and instead driving right into them.
Four people, who appeared to be British because the steering wheel of their car was on the right-hand side, died in one vehicle, regional disaster chief Antonio Sanz said. Eight others were found scattered in the fire's blackened path after apparently abandoning their vehicles and attempting to escape on foot.
A press photograph from the area shows four burned-out cars sitting on a mountain track. Regional President Juanma Moreno said authorities had originally confirmed 11 were dead but later discovered one body entirely covered by another.
"Please always follow the authorities' recommendations, always, please... because in this type of fire, the wind changes so the fire might come at you from the south and then it might shift in another direction," Moreno told reporters at the scene.
Most of those killed were likely members of foreign nationals that live in the area including Britons and Belgians, Sanz said.
"The village of Bedar in the end wasn't affected by the flames in most cases so that order to shelter in place avoided a more serious situation," he added.
Other than the 12 dead, 23 people are still missing in one of Spain's deadliest wildfires.
Moreno confirmed on Friday that no text alert had been sent to residents in the villages above Los Gallardos where the fire broke out, since the advice differs according to where they were living in the mountainous, wooded terrain, and the fast-moving situation.
Instead, local mayors and police went from door-to-door, or rang residents, either indicating a safe route along which to evacuate or instructing them to shelter in place.
Angel Collado, the mayor of Bedar, the village from where those killed had fled, said he had acted from the very first moment, knocking on every door and getting residents out, or telling them to stay, depending on the evolution of the fire at the time.
"Even those who did not want to leave, we insisted that they had to evacuate," he told reporters in an emotional account.
In Bedar, he said he had unsuccessfully begged a group of nine people preparing to leave to shelter in place. Instead, seven of them were killed trying to escape, he said.
Those who died had also not followed the indicated route. Sanz said they had taken another way out via a dry riverbed, which turned out to be a trap.
From a makeshift rescue centre in a funeral home in the neighbouring village of Lubin, Francisco, another resident of Bedar, said police had told him to stay in his house as the fire approached and had him keep the phone line open.
As authorities searched for the missing, anxious relatives from around the world posted messages on social media and local forums.
