MADRID (AP) — Five days after a fire ravaged a remote expat community in southern Spain, authorities late Tuesday identified all 13 fatalities using biological samples.
Meanwhile, French firefighters brought under control a forest fire in the historic and much-visited Fontainebleau area south of Paris as parts of the continent continued to face extremely hot temperatures.
All but one of the deceased in the Spanish wildfire, all of whom were adults,
were foreign nationals. They include seven British citizens — including a 93 year-old woman who died in the hospital — three Belgian nationals, a French woman, an American and a Spanish national, judicial authorities said in a statement.
Of the 13 victims, eight were women and five were men.
Regional authorities initially believed 23 people were missing but they all have been accounted for since investigators identified all of the fire’s victims.
The Los Gallardos fire affected some 70 square kilometers (27 square miles) of forest and farmland. It was one of fire-prone Spain's deadliest blazes in years.
Spain is experiencing extreme heat, which, combined with wind and little rainfall, is creating the ideal conditions for small wildfires to grow unchecked.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Temperatures remained exceptionally high across France on Wednesday, with highs locally reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).
The national weather agency Météo-France warned the combination of extreme heat and dry soil conditions continued to pose a significant wildfire risk across the country.
The blaze that swept through the historic Fontainebleau forest, south of Paris, and prompted the evacuation of several residential areas was brought under control, although firefighters continued to tackle small flare-ups in the affected areas, local authorities said.
