A British resident has recalled the moment she narrowly escaped Almeria’s deadly wildfire after making a life-or-death decision behind the wheel.

Jeanne Henny (pictured above inset), 74, who has lived in the hamlet of Los Pinos near Los Gallardos for 33 years, said what first appeared to be a distant plume of smoke rapidly turned into an inferno.

‘There was a lot of smoke, but it was far away,’ she told The Guardian, adding that, unlike previous wildfires, police did not go door-to-door warning residents to evacuate.

Instead, Henny said she first realised the seriousness of the situation after checking a wildfire alert app on her phone.

Shortly afterwards, a neighbour urged her and a friend, who uses a wheelchair, to leave immediately.

The pair hurriedly packed what they could into the car before fleeing with their two dogs, although they were forced to leave five cats behind.

As they drove towards the nearby village of Serena and prepared to turn towards Bedar, flames suddenly surged up a ravine and engulfed the road ahead.

Henny said she ‘had to make a decision in a split second’.

‘I had to make a split-second decision and do a three-point turn to get away from Bedar,’ she said.

‘It was a narrow road, and if I’d missed that three-point turn, I would have gone over the cliff.

‘But the fire was pouring on to the road so I had to make that split-second decision and I did the turn in one and just made it.’

After climbing into the mountains and driving another five kilometres, they finally reached safety.

Henny said the fire’s extraordinary speed was what shocked her most.

‘You thought it was kilometres away and then, suddenly, it was right in front of you on the road,’ she recalled.

According to The Guardian, other motorists who took an alternative road towards Bedar were among those who died inside their vehicles.

Bedar mayor Angel Francisco Collada said he and others had gone door to door to inform residents of whether they should evacuate or stay put.

He told media: ‘Some people didn’t want to leave and they stayed in their houses and are still alive.’

However, he said a number left when it was too late, adding: ‘A group of nine people was told to stay put but they didn’t listen… seven of them are dead and two are on the way to hospital with severe burns.’

At least 12 people have been killed by the disaster, while 23 remain missing.

It has now become the deadliest-ever wildfire in Andalucia.

As of 11pm on Friday night, the inferno was still classified as ‘active’ by the INFOCA firefighting service.