Spain wildfire: Blaze was ‘really frightening, unbelievably quick’, witnesses say

Andrew Mills, who is semi-retired and moved to Spain five years ago, said wildfires were common during summer months.

But this fire was different, he said, adding that “within two hours that whole set of mountains was alight, they just had no chance of stopping it”.

Some of those who were able to escape or avoid the flames have also paid a high personal cost.

Los Gallardos resident Jose Antonio Flores watched as flames engulfed the land he had tended for decades.

“It rips your soul out,” he told Reuters news agency. Pointing to his son, he said: “I raised him there, where the fire is. I had 600 orange trees.”

Throughout the day on Friday, hundreds of firefighters, military and law enforcement personnel, and 30 aircraft, continued responding to the blaze.

“This is the first time we’ve faced a fire as devastating as this,” Los Gallardos mayor Francisco Miguel Reyes told Spanish radio station Cadena SER, adding that “it feels like a bomb has fallen” on the area.

“When I think about how everything was before the fire started and see how it is now, it’s breathtaking.”