A British man whose wife and 12 friends and neighbours are feared to have been killed in the Spanish wildfires has told of the moment he became separated from them – as a fifth British national was identified among the dead.
Malcolm Timbrell, 70, and his wife Annette Kilgore, 69, lived in the village of Bédar, in Almeria province, which was consumed by flames last Thursday evening. Thirteen people died in the fire, making it one of the deadliest in Spanish history.
“Malcolm Timbrell survived a Spanish wildfire in a car while his wife and 12 friends died.”
Speaking to the BBC outside his destroyed home high on the hillside, Timbrell described the chaos as the flames – aided by strong winds – neared his property. "You'd never imagine it could happen," he said. "And when it does, and you're the only survivor, then you're left in a situation of, 'What can I do?'"
The couple and their friends decided to try to escape by car. But Timbrell – who had appeared with Annette on the Channel 4 programme *A Place in the Sun* – turned back for their cats, Charlie and Lilly. "If we'd have done the sensible thing and gone the other way and let our cats die, we both would be alive," he said. "But when you've got animals, you don't think like that."
With both cats secured, Timbrell tried to catch up with the group but saw they were out of their vehicles. "My wife and our other seven friends and neighbours – against me screaming at them not to – decided the only safe way was to walk out in front of the firewall," he said. "I've subsequently heard that that fire wall was moving at 20 kilometres per hour, plus. They had no chance."
Alone, Timbrell took refuge in abandoned cars. "Of the six cars, four of them instantly combusted and as each one started to go, I moved back one car," he said. "For some reason of fate, the last two cars … survived. And I survived inside the last one with a cat."
Emergency workers rescued him after the flames passed. But the bodies of eight people were subsequently discovered on a path down from the couple's home. Of his partner of 17 years, Timbrell said: "She was such a happy, outgoing person. We have had an amazing life together – and now it's stopped."
Sky News reported that a fifth British national has been identified as a victim of the wildfire in southern Spain, which killed more than a dozen people.