Spain battles to contain Ione of its deadliest wildfires as at least 12 killed | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00Emergency services in southeastern Spain
2. 0:02are working to contain pockets of fire
3. 0:05following one of the country's worst
4. 0:06ever wildfires. Hundreds of firefighters
5. 0:09and other specialists have been deployed
6. 0:10around the village of Bedar where 12
7. 0:12people are confirmed to have been
8. 0:13killed, among them four Britons. The
9. 0:16fire is one of a number in Spain and the
10. 0:17authorities are investigating whether a
11. 0:19downed power line was the cause,
12. 0:21although several electricity companies
13. 0:23have denied it. It comes after repeated
14. 0:25extreme heat waves across Western
15. 0:27Europe, including Spain. Nick Beak has
16. 0:29the latest from Almria.
17. 0:33>> An adilic Spanish holiday landscape has
18. 0:35just descended into this hellish vision.
19. 0:40Trapped in a rapidly expanding inferno,
20. 0:43this was the nightmare confronting one
21. 0:45British family. Forced to turn round
22. 0:48with flames now just meters away,
23. 0:50cutting off their path.
24. 0:52>> Like it was burning in through the car.
25. 0:54Yeah. 24 hours on, Lucinda, Riaz, and
26. 0:57their children relived their escape from
27. 1:00the village of Bedar.
28. 1:01>> What were you thinking and feeling in
29. 1:03your heart then?
30. 1:04>> Just really how I could get the kids out
31. 1:05of there. We came down the mountain. We
32. 1:08were not expecting to hit a wall of
33. 1:09fire. Um, it was quite terrifying and my
34. 1:13brain was just racing thinking, "How do
35. 1:15I get back through the village without
36. 1:16following the line of fire?" Because it
37. 1:18was shooting up the mountain along the
38. 1:20road where we needed to drive.
39. 1:21>> They found out friends had been killed.
40. 1:23We've lost some really close family
41. 1:25friends. They left their home on foot.
42. 1:28Um I I don't know why. I can only
43. 1:31presume their road was probably cut off
44. 1:33because they live out in the countryside
45. 1:34around the village and they have been
46. 1:36unfortunately found dead.
47. 1:39>> Earlier, local authorities said four
48. 1:42people whom they described as being of
49. 1:44British origin were found dead in a
50. 1:46right-hand drive car in the same
51. 1:48village. No further details were given.
52. 1:51Hundreds of people were transported to
53. 1:53nearby sports halls,
54. 1:57>> but others were still trapped. This
55. 1:59carer pleads with the local mayor to
56. 2:02help save the woman she's looking after.
57. 2:04>> It's very complicated. We don't know if
58. 2:07the house has burned down or not. And
59. 2:09the woman I'm taking care of, she can't
60. 2:11move around easily.
61. 2:14>> Some victims who perished have been
62. 2:16trying to flee on foot.
63. 2:20It might be that in searching for an
64. 2:22escape route too late, the escape routes
65. 2:24were not suitable and they found
66. 2:26themselves in a dead end, a trap with
67. 2:30practically no way out.
68. 2:35Hundreds of firefighters and other
69. 2:37emergency specialists have been brought
70. 2:39in to deal with Thursday night's
71. 2:41disaster and its ongoing effect.
72. 2:45The top regional official in Ander Lucia
73. 2:48blamed the fire on a power line that
74. 2:50came down. Electrical companies denied
75. 2:53that was the cause.
76. 2:55What is clear, this would have been a
77. 2:57terrifying experience for those who made
78. 3:00it out alive and those who didn't. Nick
79. 3:04Beak, BBC News in southeastern Spain.
80. 3:08while our Spain correspondent Guy
81. 3:09Hedgeko has the latest from Alria.
82. 3:12>> Well, I'm in Los Gayarados, which is the
83. 3:14the spot where near where the fire
84. 3:17started last Thursday afternoon. Behind
85. 3:19me, you can see a few flames, a bit of
86. 3:21smoke, which is sort of the very edge uh
87. 3:25of the the fire, but the the main fire
88. 3:27is still burning uh very strongly.
89. 3:31Overnight 500 firefighters were trying
90. 3:33to bring it under control with the help
91. 3:36of uh aircraft and helicopters. Um uh
92. 3:39but it it is still uh not uh under
93. 3:43control. Um it has burned 4,000
94. 3:46hectares. 1,400 people have been
95. 3:48evacuated from their homes and have been
96. 3:50housed in uh public buildings or with
97. 3:53relatives and family. The good news is
98. 3:56that today temperatures are expected to
99. 3:58be slightly lower, perhaps in the low to
100. 4:00mid30s Celsius, uh, which should help
101. 4:03firefighters, although winds have been
102. 4:06quite high still overnight and into this
103. 4:08morning. Um, of course, we have those 12
104. 4:11people confirmed dead and there are
105. 4:13concerns that the death toll uh could
106. 4:15rise further because there are 23 people
107. 4:18still unaccounted for. So, one of the
108. 4:20main tasks of emergency services
109. 4:22throughout today uh will be to look for
110. 4:25those missing people. Um but what we do
111. 4:27know is that this is uh the worst uh
112. 4:31fire tragedy in Spain since 1984.
113. 4:36>> And Guy, I know I and my family were
114. 4:39trapped in a in a wildfire in France a
115. 4:41few years ago. It is utterly terrifying.
116. 4:43It's hard to explain, you know, just how
117. 4:46awful it is. uh one really feels for
118. 4:48people who are trapped there and for
119. 4:50those who who've lost neighbors and
120. 4:52friends, but uh do we know whether
121. 4:55anyone at risk in the area has been or
122. 4:58is being evacuated because the the wind
123. 5:00can take the fires in really
124. 5:01unpredictable directions?
125. 5:06>> Well, yes. Yes, I mean this has been one
126. 5:07of the the main challenges for the the
127. 5:09authorities and that's why we've seen
128. 5:11not just firefighters and members of the
129. 5:13military in this area but also uh uh two
130. 5:16more than 200 civil guards as well
131. 5:19who've been helping organize uh local
132. 5:22people getting them evacuated from their
133. 5:25homes. Uh local sports hall here has
134. 5:27been used to to house people who have
135. 5:29been uh evacuated. getting information
136. 5:32to to people in this area has been uh
137. 5:35seen as an absolute priority because a
138. 5:38lot of the people who live here or the
139. 5:39holiday makers who are staying here are
140. 5:41staying in homes or houses which are
141. 5:43slightly remote. They're not necessarily
142. 5:45in in towns or villages there. They're
143. 5:48in in rural areas. Um and there's a
144. 5:51feeling that that may have been the the
145. 5:53problem um on late on Thursday night,
146. 5:55the early hours of Friday morning uh
147. 5:57when these people were killed by the
148. 5:59fire. um that they were not able to find
149. 6:02uh an evacuation route. They weren't
150. 6:04able to follow the the routes that were
151. 6:07laid out for them by the authorities. Um
152. 6:09so that obviously uh is a major priority
153. 6:12for the for the authorities to to keep
154. 6:14people well informed about the
155. 6:15situation.
156. 6:16>> Guy Hedesko there in Spain. No.