Malcolm Timbrell, 70, survived a Spanish wildfire by hiding in his car as a wall of flames tore past, but his wife Annette Kilgore, 69, and 12 friends died after they tried to flee on foot from the village of Bédar in Almeria province. The wildfire, among the deadliest in Spanish history, swept through the village on Thursday evening, leaving at least 13 people dead.
Timbrell and his wife, who had found their home through the TV programme A Place in the Sun, initially decided to escape by car with neighbours. But Timbrell turned back to rescue 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. But when you've got animals, you don't think like that,' he told the BBC.
“Briton Malcolm Timbrell survived Spanish wildfire that killed his wife and 12 others; father died saving children at Seaton Carew.”
When he returned, he saw the group had left their cars and were walking in front of the fire. '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.'
Timbrell took refuge in the abandoned cars, moving from one to the next as four of the six instantly combusted. 'For some reason of fate, the last two cars, although very, very badly singed and paint bubbled and burnt, survived. And I survived inside the last one with a cat,' he said. He was later rescued by emergency workers. Bodies of eight people were later discovered on a path near his home. 'She was such a happy, outgoing person,' he said of his partner of 17 years. 'We have had an amazing life together – and now it's stopped.'
In a separate tragedy on Sunday, a father died trying to rescue his children from the sea at Seaton Carew beach near Hartlepool. Two men were found dead after they were overcome while trying to save two children, who survived. Witness Davey Short, 48, a painter and decorator from Bishop Auckland, said he helped rescue an 11- or 12-year-old boy. The boy's father and a dog walker had gone into the water first and were swept away. 'I realised all three children were safe and accounted for, but their dad was still in the water and I knew that he had gone,' Short told Yahoo News. 'I felt for those children and for their mum. They saw it all happened and it's something that will never leave any of us.'
