As we climbed the winding road to Bédar, we emerged into a charred and desolate landscape. Molten car parts littered our path and out of the window we saw the whole hillside now coated in a dusty black.
At least 13 people, including five believed by Spanish authorities to be Britons, were killed by Thursday's wildfire in Spain's Almería province, one of the country's deadliest ever. The toll rose on Sunday after a 93‑year‑old woman, believed to be British, died of her injuries in hospital.
The fire, which has now been contained, burned through about 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of land. The breadth of the damage was a vivid sign of the ferocity of the flames, which had been powered by winds up to 50 km/h (31 mph).
Dramatically, the couple’s house survived while many neighbours’ homes did not, prompting outrage and a call for better alerts.
"This is our house and it survived," Emma Mitchell told us with a huge sigh of relief. She pointed across the valley to a property ringed by darkened trees and vegetation. Her eyes filled as she described driving past friends’ houses that had not been so lucky.
Emma and her husband Simon moved three years ago to Bédar, where they looked after 15 chickens and spent time with their three dogs. "When I look over there and I see how close we were to disaster like some of those people, that is terrifying," she said.
The Mitchells were among about 600 of the nearly 1,500 people evacuated from the fire zone in Almería province who were told they could return on Sunday. They had never been given clear instructions on how to flee in the case of a fire. "Next time it would be good to get an alert on our phones. We get an alert for earthquakes that are 50 miles away but we don't get an alert for a fire that is a quarter of a kilometre away," Emma added.
Local officials said they had not issued an alert on Thursday night because it might have reached people beyond the affected area and complicated evacuations. Police went door‑to‑door or telephoned residents with instructions on how to shelter or evacuate safely.
Emma was particularly angry with those local officials who said some people who were killed— including Britons—had not followed instructions. "You need to get your act sorted and please don't try and victim‑blame afterwards," she said. "These people that died, they had no instructions to follow, they did the best they could in the circumstances they could and they paid the price."
The region’s fire crews and firefighters were praised for their response. Emma and Simon returned to their house where all of the chickens were still alive, and the power and water were still working despite the inferno that took hold around the house.
